
Class 
Book 



M 3\ 



^ 

^ 






DICTIONARY 



OF ALL 

RELIGIONS 

AND 

RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS, 

JEWISH) HEATHEN, MAHOMETAN, AND CHRISTIAN, 
ANCIENT AND MODERN, 

WITH AN 

APPENDIX, 

CONTAINING 

A SKETCH OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE WORLD, AS TO POP- 
ULATION, RELIGION, TOLERATION, MISSIONS, ETC. AND 
THE ARTICLES IN WHICH ALL CHRISTIAN 
DENOMINATIONS AGREE. 

BY HANNAH ADAMS. 

11 

PROVE ALL THINGS; HOLD FAST THAT WHICH IS GOOD. — ApOStle Paul. 

Fourth edition, with corrections and large additions. 
PUBLISHED 

UY JAMES EASTBCKX AND COMPANY, 

AT THE LITERARY ROOMS, CORNER OP BROADWAY AND PINE STREET, N. YORK | 

AND 

BY CDMMINGS AND HIIXIARD, 

NO. 1, CORNHILL, BOSTON. 
1817. 



1*11 



District ofNkw+York, - 

Bi it remembered, that on the 13tli clay of March, in the forty-first year 
of the independence of the United States of America, James Eastburn and 
Co. of the said district, have deposited in this office the title of a book, the 
right whereof they claim as proprietors, in the words following-, to wit : — "A 
Dictionary of all Religions and Religious Denominations, Jewish, Heathen, 
.Mahometan and Christian, Ancient and Modern ; with an Appendix, contain- 
ing* a sketch of the present sUte of the world as to Population, Religion, 
Toleration, Missions, etc. and the articles in which all Christian Denomina- 
tions agree. By Hannah Apams. Prove all tliingSy hold fust that -which is 
good. — Apostle Paul. Fourth edition, with corrections and large additions." 

In conformity to the act of the Congress of the United States, entitled 
" An act for the encouragement of learning, by Becuring the copies of 
maps, charts and books to the authors and proprietors of such copies, dur- 
the times therein mentioned." And also to an act, entitled " An act sup- 
plementary to an act, entitled an act tor the encouragement of learning, by 
securing the cop : es of maps, charts and books to the authors and proprie- 
tors of such copies during the times therein mentioned, and extending the 
benefits thereof to the arts of designing, engraving and etching historical 
and other prints.'' THERON RUDD, 

Clerk of the Southern District of N. York. 



I'K : i; !• \ v Ii M i i ( v l.i . 



ADVERTISEMENT. 

The reader will be pleased to observe, that 
the following rules have been carefully adhered 
to through the whole of this performance. 

1. To avoid giving the least preference of 
one denomination above another: omitting those 
passages in the authors cited, where they pass 
their judgment on the sentiments, of which they 
give an account : consequently the making use 
of any such appellations, as Heretics, Schismat- 
ics, Enthusiasts, Fanatics, $>c. is carefully avoid- 
ed. 

2. To give a few of the arguments of the 
principal sects, from their own authors, where 
they could be obtained. 

3. To endeavour to give the sentiments of 
every sect in the general collective sense of that 
denomination. 

4. To give the whole, as much as possible, in 
the words of the authors from which the compi- 
lation is made, and where that could not be done 
without too great prolixity, to take the utmost 
care not to misrepresent the ideas. 



TO THE 

HON. JOHN ADAMS, LL. D. 

FORMERLY PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 
SIR, 

Sensible of the honour I received by your permitting 
me to prefix your name to the second land third editions of 
this work, I am desirous that the present should appear under 
the same respectable and distinguished patronage. 

The talents and virtues which you have exhibited, both in 
public and private life, will, I trust, be duly appreciated by the 
rising generation ; and it is my ardent wish, that your abili- 
ty and integrity may be perpetuated in your descendants. 
I am most respectfully, 

Sir, your most obliged 

and very humble servant, 

HANNAH ADAMR, 

Boston* November. 1817. 



PREFACE. 

The candid reception which the public have given to the three 
preceding editions of the View of Religions encourages me to publish 
a fourth edition, with an account of a number of denominations, which 
have been recently formed, A London edition of this work, by the 
late Rev. Dr. Andrew Fuller, has been found useful in this compila- 
tion. This excellent man observes in his Preface, that "The design 
of such a work is not to convey an idea of all religious principles be- 
ing equally true, or safe to those who imbibe them ; but to exhibit the 
multiplied speculations of the human mind in as just and impartial a 
manner as possible. Such things exist or have existed in the world, 
whether we know them or not ; and the reading of them in a proper 
spirit may induce us to cleave more closely to the law and to the tes- 
timony ; forming our religious principles by their simple and obvious 
meaning ; and avoiding, as a mariner would avoid rocks and quick- 
sands, every perversion of them in support of a preconceived sys- 
tem " 

I respectfully acknowledge having derived much assistance from 
Mr. Thomas Williams' " Dictionary of all Religions, including the 
substance of Miss H. Adams* View of Religions reduced to one al- 
phabet." I have adopted his title, and inserted a number of his 
alterations and additions in this edition. The articles 1 have selected 
and published verbatim from Mr. Williams' work are distinguished by 
an asterisk(*) placed at the beginning of each, accordingto his method. 
But having, in the first edition of my View of Religions prescribed rules 
to myself, from which 1 have not knowingly deviated in the subsequent 
editions, I have avoided inserting any thing from Dr. Fuller or Mr. 
Williams, which appeared to me an infringement of these rules. 

1 have therefore omitted quoting the remarks which Mr. Williams 
makes upon the different denominations ; for whether correct or not, 
the inserting of them would be an infringement of the first rule in the 
Advertisement of my work. 

With regard to many of the ancient sects, it is well known that 
little has been preserved, and therefore little can be expected. The 
accounts of these, as Mr. Williams justly observes, "have necessari- 
ly been taken from early ecclesiastical history, which was by no means 
written with the candour and impartiality of modern times." As for 
modern sects, it has been the practice in this candid age to let them 
speak for themselves. This liberal principle has been adopted in all 
the editions of my work, where I had an opportunity to peruse their 
own authors. But as the account of the Jesuits is chiefly taken from 
Protestant ecclesiastical historians, it may be proper to add, that ma- 
ny individuals of this order undoubtedly deserve the following char- 



PREFACE. 

acter given of them by a Roman Catholic author. " The severity of 
their manners, their temperance, their personal decency and disin- 
terestedness did them honour as religious men and as citizens."* The 
great and good Bourdaloue, one of the most celebrated preachers 
in the reign of Lewis XIV, was a Jesuit. 

The first part of the Appendix, " Containing a sketch of the pres- 
ent state of the world as to population, religious toleration, missions, 
&c. ?? is the work of Mr. T. Williams, excepting a few additions rela- 
tive to recent events, which have taken place since the publication of 
his Dictionary. This intelligence is chiefly contained in the notes to 
his statements. 

The last part of the Appendix, which mentions the central points 
in which the various denominations of Christians are united, was pub- 
lished in the second and third editions of this work ; and is inserted 
with a few additions. After perusing accounts of such a variety of 
opinions on religion, it is pleasant to find even a few articles in which 
the great body of Christians are agreed. 

In giving this work to the public, I have only to request a contin- 
uance of the same candid indulgence I have so long experienced. I 
shall be highly gratified, if seeingsuch a diversity of sentiment amongst 
Christians might induce those, who peruse this work, to search the 
scriptures as the only foundation for their faith and practice. And 
in ail their researches after truth may they imitate the candour of the 
late pious and ingenious Dr. Watts. This excellent man observes, 
that " From my own experiment, I can easily guess what confound- 
ing intricacies of thought others pass through in their honest searches 
alar truth. These conflicts did exceedingly enlarge my soul, and 

tched my charity to a vast extent. I see, I feel, and am assured, 
that several men. may be very sincere, and yet entertain notions of 
divinity, all widely different. I confess, now and then some opin- 
MHne unhappy occurrences are ready to narrow and confine 
affections again, if I am not watchful over myself; but I pray 
(;<><1 to pn Berve upon my heart a strong and lasting remembrance of 
studies, whereby he laid within me the founda- 
tion of 10 broad a charity ."t 

# h Ion. 

,- Watts' Orthodoxy and Charity united. 



INTRODUCTION, 



containing a brief account of the world at the time 
of Christ's appearance upon earth. 



SECTION I. 

W hen Jesus Christ made his appearance on earth, a 
great part of the world was subject to the Roman empire. 
This empire was much the largest temporal monarchy that 
had ever existed : so that it was called, " all the world." 
(Luke ii. 1.) The time when the Romans first subjugated 
the land of Judea, was between sixty and seventy years 
before Christ was born j and soon after this, the Roman 
empire rose to its greatest extent and splendour. To this 
government the world continued subject till Christ came, 
and many hundred years afterwards. The remoter na- 
tions, who had submitted to the yoke of this mighty em- 
pire, were ruled either by Roman governours, invested with 
temporary commissions, or by their own princes and laws, 
in subordination to the republic whose sovereignty was ac- 
knowledged, and to which the conquered kings, who were 
continued in their own dominions, owed their borrowed 
majesty. At the same time the Roman people and their 
venerable senate, though they had not lost all shadow of 
liberty, were yet in reality reduced to a state of servile 
submission to Augustus Csesar ; who by artifice, perfidy, 
and bloodshed, attained an enormous degree of power, and 
united in his own person the pompous titles of Emperour, 
Pontiff, Censor, Tribune of the people : in a word, all the 
great offices of the state.* 

* Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. p. 16. 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

At this period the Romans, according to Daniel's pro- 
phetic description, had trodden down the kingdoms, and 
by their exceeding strength, deroured the whole earth. 
However, by enslaving the world, they civilized it; and 
whilst they oppressed mankind, they united them together. 
The same laws were ^very where established, and the 
same languages understood. Men approached nearer to 
one another in sentiments and manners ; and the inter- 
course between the most distant regions of the earth was 
rendered secure and agreeable.' Hence the benign influ- 
ence of letters and philosophy w ? as spread abroad in coun- 
tries which had been before enveloped in the darkest igno- 
rance.* 

Just before Christ was born, the Roman empire not only 
rose to its greatest height, but was also settled in peace. 
Augustus Csesar had been for many years establishing the 
state of the Roman empire, and subduing his enemies, till 
the very year that Christ was born : then all his enemies 
being reduced to subjection, his dominion over the world 
appeared to be settled in its greatest glory. This remark- 
able peace, after so many ages of tumult and war, was a fit 
prelude to the ushering of the glorious Prince of Peace 
into the world. The tranquillity, which then reigned, was 
necessary to enable the ministers of Christ to execute with 
success their sublime commission to the human race. In 
the situation into which the providence of God had brought 
the world, the gospel in a few years reached those remote 
corners of the earth, into which it could not otherwise have 
penetrated for niany ages. 

All the heathen nations, at the time of Christ's appear- 
ance on earth, worshipped a multiplicity of gods and de- 
mons, w hose favour they courted by obscene and ridiculous 

monies, and whose anger they endeavoured to appease 
by the most ahominablc crucltics.f 

:non on the Situation of the world at the time of 
ipearance« 
f 8< .hi ind Robertson. 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

Every nation had its respective gods, over which one 
more excellent than the rest presided ; yet in such a 
manner that the supreme Deity was himself controlled by 
the rigid decrees of fate, or by what the philosophers 
called eternal necessity. The gods of the east were different 
from those of the Gauls, the Germans, and other northern 
nations. The Grecian divinities differed from those of the 
Egyptians, who deified plants, and a great variety of the 
productions both of nature and art. Each people had also 
their peculiar manner of worshipping and appeasing their 
respective deities. In process of time, however, the Greeks 
and Romans grew as ambitious in their religious pretensions 
as in their political claims. They maintained that their 
gods, though under different appellations, were the objects 
of religious worship in all nations ; and therefore they 
gave the names of their deities to those of other coun- 
tries.^ 

The deities of almost all nations were either ancient 
heroes, renowned for noble exploits and worthy deeds, or 
kings and generals who had founded empires, or women 
who had become illustrious by remarkable actions or 
useful inventions. The merit of those eminent persons, 
contemplated by their posterity with enthusiastic gratitude, 
was the cause of their exaltation to celestial honours. The 
natural world furnished another kind of deities ; and as 
the sun, moon, and stars shine with a lustre superiour to 
that of all other material beings, they received religious 
homage from almost all the nations of the world.f 

* Mosheim, vol. L p. 18, 

f The learned Mr. Bryant, in his analysis of ancient mythology, sup- 
poses that the worship of the powers of nature, principally the sun, was 
the original idolatry, which prevailed in all nations ; that the charac- 
ters of the pagan deities of different countries melt into each other ; and 
that the whole crowd of gods and goddesses mean only the powers of 
nature, (especially the swij branched out and diversified by a number 
of different names and attributes. Sir William Jones, in his history 
of the antiquities of Asia, appears to have embraced the same opinion. 
See Bryant, vol. i. p. 2,308. See also Sir William Jones' Dissertation 
of the gods of Greece, Italy, and India. 



8 I>iTKuDl*tTIO>. 

From those beings of a nobler kind, idolatry descended 
into an enormous multiplication of inferiour powers ; so that 
in many countries, mountains, trees, and rivers, the earth, 
and sea, and wind, nay, even virtues and vices, and dis- 
eases, had their shrines attended by devout and zealous 
worshippers.* 

These deities were honoured with rites and sacrifices of 
various kinds, according to their respective nature and 
offices. Most nations offered animals ; and human sacri- 
fices were universal in ancient times. They were in use 
among the Egyptians till the reign of Amasis : they were 
never so common among the Greeks and Romans : yet 
they were practised by them on extraordinary occasions. 
Porphyry says that the Greeks were wont to sacrifice men 
when they went to war. He relates also that human sacri- 
fices were offered at Rome till the reign of Adrian, who 
ordered them to be abolished in most places.! 

Pontiffs, priests, and ministers, distributed into several 
classes, presided over the pagan w T orship, and were appoint- 
ed to prevent disorder in the performance of religious rites. 
The sacerdotal order, which was supposed to be distin- 
guished by an immediate intercourse and friendship with> 
the gods, abused its authority in the basest manner, to de- 
ceive an ignorant and wretched people.:): 

Hie religions worship of the pagans was -confined to 
certain times and places. The statues, and other repre- 

were placed in the temples, and 
1 to l)f ; I in an incomprehensible manner; 

lor tin \ imitation of worshipping in- 

animate beings : and ti pretended that the divinity 

rep by the statue was really present in it, if the 

dedication were truly and properly mudc.$ 

: cli- 

orld 



IXTR0DFCTX0X. 9 

Besides the public worship of the gods, to which all, 
without exception, were admitted, there were certain reli- 
gious rites celebrated in secret by the Greeks, and several 
eastern countries, to which a small number was allowed 
access. These were called mysteries ;* and persons who 
desired an initiation were obliged previously -to exhibit 
satisfactory proofs of their fidelity and patience, by pass- 
ing through various trials and ceremonies of the most dis- 
agreeable kind. The secret of these mysteries was kept in 
the strictest manner, as the initiated could not reveal any 
thing that passed in them, without exposing their lives to 
the most imminent danger. 

These secret doctrines were taught in the mysteries of 
Eleusis, and in those of Baccjnis, and other divinities ; but 
the reigning religion was totally external. It held out no 
body of doctrines, no public instruction to participate on 
stated days in the established worship. The only faith 
required was, to believe that the gods exist, and reward 
virtue either in this life or in that to come j-- the only prac- 
tice, to perform at intervals some religious acts, such as 
appearing in the solemn festivals, and sacrificing at the 
public altars.f 

The spirit and genius of the pagan religion was not 
calculated to promote moral virtue. Stately temples, ex- 
pensive sacrifices, pompous ceremonies, and magnificent 
festivals, were the objects presented to its votaries. But 
just notions of God, obedience to his moral laws, purity 

* The vulgar were carefully excluded from these secrets, which 
were reserved for the nobility and sacerdotal tribe. The priests, who 
had devised these allegories, understood their original import, and be- 
queathed them, as an inestimable legacy, to their children. In order to 
celebrate these mysteries with the greater secrecy, the temples were so 
constructed as to favour the artifice of the priests. The fanes, in which 
they used to execute their sacred functions, and perform the ceremonies 
of their religion, were subterraneous mansions, constructed with such 
wonderful dexterity, that every thing which appeared in them breathed 
an air of solemn secrecy. See Encyclopedia Brittannica, vol. z'u. p. 501. 

■j- Travels of Anacharsis the Younger in Greece, by the Abbe Bar- 
thekmi, vol. ii. p. 311. 



10 ivrnoDrcTioN. 

of heart, and sanctity of life, were not once mentioned as 
ingredients in religious service. No repentance of past 
crimes, and no future amendment of conduct, were ever 
prescribed by the pagans, as proper means of appeasing 
their offended deities. Sacrifice a chosen victim, bow down 
before a hallowed image, be initiated in the sacred mysteries, 
and the wrath of the gods shall be averted— the thunder 
shall drop from their hands.* 

The gods and goddesses, to whom public worship was 
paid, exhibited to their adorers examples of egregious 
crimes, rather than of useful and illustrious virtues. It 
was permitted to consider Jupiter, the father of the gods, 
as an usurper, who expelled his father from the throne of 
the universe, and who was in his turn to be one day driven 
from it by his son.f The priests were little solicitous to 
animate the people to virtuous conduct, either by precept 
or example : they plainly enough declared, that all which 
was essential to the true worship of the gods was contain- 
ed in the rites and institutions which the people had re- 
ceived by tradition from their ancestors. Hence the wiser 
part of mankind, about the time of Christ's birth, looked 
upon the whole system of religion as a just object of ridi- 
cule and contempt. 

The consequence of this state of theology was an uni- 
versal corruption of manners, which discovered itself in the 
impunity of the most flagitious crimes.}: The colours arc 
not too strong which the apostle employs in drawing the 
dhairact r of the heathens. Rom. i. 21, 22. Eph. iv. 17, 

IS, \[). 

the time of Christ's appearance f od earth, the rcli- 

n of the Romans, as well as their arms, had extended it- 

self throughout a great partofthe world. Those nations, 

who before their subjection had their own gods, and their 

own particular religious institutions, were persuaded by de- 

arsis* t Mobhcim, vol. i. p. 23. 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

grees to admit into their worship a great variety of the sa- 
cred rites and customs of the conquerors.^ 

When from the sacred rites of the ancient Romans we 
pass to review the other religions which prevailed in the 
world, it will appear obvious that the most remarkable may 
be properly divided into two classes ; one of which will 
comprehend the religious systems which owe their existence 
to political views, and the other of those which seem to 
have been formed for military purposes. The religions of 
most of the eastern nations may be ranked in the former 
class, especially that of the Persians, Egyptians and Indians, 
which appear to have been solely calculated for the preser- 
vation of the state, the support of the royal authority and 
grandeur, the maintenance of public peace, and the ad- 
vancement of civil virtues. The religious system of the 
northern nations may be comprehended under the military 
class, since all the traditions among the Germans, the 
Britons, the Celts, and the Goths, concerning their divin- 
ities, have a manifest tendency to excite and nourish 
fortitude, ferocity, an insensibility of danger and contempt 
of life.f 

At this time Christianity broke forth from the east like a 
rising sun, and dispelled the universal religious darkness 
which obscured every part of the globe. « The noblest 
people (says Dr. Robertson) that ever entered upon the 
stage of the world, appear to have been only instruments 
in the divine hand for the execution of wise purposes con- 
cealed from themselves. The Roman ambition and brave- 
ry paved the way, and prepared the world for the reception 
of the Christian doctrine. They fought and conquered, that 
it might triumph with the greater ease. (See Isai. x. 7.) 
By means of their victories, the overruling providence of 
God established an empire, which really possesses that 
perpetuity and eternal duration which they vainly arrogat- 
ed to their own. He erected a throne which shall contin- 

* Mosheim, vol i. p. 24. f Ibid, vol. i. p. 25. 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

ue forever ; and of the increase of that government there 
shall be no end"* 

It has been mentioned, to the honour of Christianity, 
that it rose and flourished in a learned, inquiring, and dis- 
cerning age : and made the most rapid and amazing pro- 
gress through the immense empire of Rome to its remotest 
limits, when the world was in its most civilized state, and 
in an age that was universally distinguished for science 
and erudition.f 



SECTION II. 

The state of the Jews was not much better than that of 
other nations, at the time of Christ's appearance on earth. 
They were governed by Herod, who was himself tributary 
to the Roman people. His government was of the most 
vexatious and oppressive kind. By a cruel, suspicious, 
and overbearing temper, he drew upon himself the aversion 
of all, not excepting those who lived upon his bounty. 

Under his administration, and through his influence, the 
luxury of the Romans was introduced into Palestine, ac- 
companied with the vices of that licentious people. In a 
word, Judea, governed by Herod, groaned under all the 
corruption which might be expected from the authority and 
example of a prince, who, though a Jew in outward pro- 
, in point of morals and practice, a contemner 
of all laws, human and divine.^: 

After the death of this tyrant, the Romans divided the 

1 unit nt of Judea between his sons. In this division 

one half of the kingdom was giY6n to Archelaus, under the 

title of Kxarch. Arrhelaus Mas so corrupt and wicked a 

prince, that at last both Jews and Samaritans joined in a 

lh, IX. 7. 

t Addil nccs ami I \ Introduction, vol. i. p. ! 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

petition against him to Augustus, who banished him from 
his dominions about ten years after the death of He^pd the 
Great. Judea was by this sentence reduced to a Roman 
province, and ordered to be taxed.* 

The governours whom the Romans appointed over Judea 
were frequently changed, but seldom for the better. About 
the sixteenth year of Christ, Pontius Pilate was appointed 
a governour, the whole of whose administration, according 
to Josephus, was one continual scene of venality, rapine, 
and of every kind of savage cruelty. Such a governour was 
ill calculated to appease the ferments occasioned by the late 
tax. Indeed Pilate was so far from attempting to appease, 
that he greatly inflamed them, by taking every occasion of 
introducing his standards, with images, pictures, and con- 
secrated shields, into their city ; and at last by attempting 
to drain the treasury of the temple, under pretence of bring- 
ing an aqueduct into Jerusalem. The most remarkable 
transaction of his government, however, was his condem- 
nation of Jesus Christy seven years after which he was re- 
moved from Judea.f 

However severe the authority which the Romans exer- 
cised over the Jews, yet it did not extend to the entire sup- 
pression of their civil and religious privileges* The Jews 
were in some measure governed by their own laws, and 
permitted the enjoyment of their religion. The adminis- 
tration of religious ceremonies was committed as before to 
the high priest, and to the sanhedrim ; to the former of 
whom, the order of priests and levites was in the usual 
subordination ; and the form of outward worship, except in 
a very few points, suffered no visible change. But, on the 
other hand, it is impossible to express the disquietude and 
disgust, the calamities and vexations, which this unhappy 
nation suffered from the presence of the Romans, whom 
their religion obliged them to regard as a polluted and idol- 
atrous people ; particularly from the avarice and cruelty 

* Mobheim vol. i. p. 31. f En eye. Brit. vol. ix. p 136. 



14 INTRODtJCTIOK. 

of the pretors, and the frauds and extortions of the pul> 
Hcans^ so that, all things considered, their condition, who 
lived under the government of the other sons of Herod, was 
much more supportable than the state of those who w r erc 
immediately subject to the Roman jurisdiction.* 

It was not, however, from the Romans only that the 
calamities of this miserable people proceeded. Their own 
rulers multiplied their vexations, and debarred them from 
enjoying any little comforts which were left them by the 
Roman magistrates. The leaders of the people, and the 
chief priests, were, according to the account of Joseph us, 
profligate wretches, who had purchased their places by 
bribes, or by other acts of iniquity, and who mautained 
their ill-acquired authority by the most abominable crimes. 
The ioferiour priests, and those who possessed any shadow 
of authority, were become dissolute and abandoned to the 
highest degree. The multitude, excited by these corrupt 
examples, ran headlong into every kind of iniquity ; and by 
their endless seditions, robberies, and extortions, armed 
against themselves both the justice of God and the vengeance 
of man. f 

About the lime of Christ's appearance, the Jews of that 
age concluded the period prc-determincd by God to be 
then completed, and that the promised Messiah would sud- 
denly appear. Devout persons waited day and night for 
the consolation of Israel ; and the whole nation, groaning 
under the Roman yoke, and stimulated by the desire of 
liberty or of vengeance, expected their deliverer with the 
most anxious impatience. 

Nor were these expectations peculiar to the Jews. By 
their dispersion among so many nations, by their convi r- 
sation with the learned men among the heathens, and by 

translations of their inspired writings into a language 
almost universal, the principles of their religion were spread 
all over the east. It became the common belief that a 

• Mobli.iiii. -| Mosheim, vul. i. p. 38. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

Prince would arise at that time in Judea, who w r ould change 
the face of the world, and extend his empire from one end 
of the earth to the other.* 

The whole hody of the people looked for a powerful and 
warlike deliverer, who they supposed would free them from 
the Roman authority. All considered the whole of religion 
as consisting in the rites appointed by Moses, and in the 
performance of some external acts of duty. All were unan- 
imous in excluding the other nations of the world from the 
hopes of eternal life. 

The learned among the Hebrew nation were divided in- 
to a great variety of sects ; and defended their tenets with 
the greatest zeal and pertinacity. The Samaritans were, 
in particular, violently opposed to the Jews. A particular 
account of their opinions, as well as those of the Pharisees, 
Sadducees, Essenes, &c. will be explained under each de- 
nomination in the Dictionary. 

Whilst the learned and sensible part of the Jewish na- 
tion was divided into a variety of sects, the multitude was 
sunk into the most deplorable ignorance of religion ; and 
had no conception of any other method of rendering them- 
selves acceptable to God, than by sacrifices, washings, and 
other external rites and ceremonies of the Mosaic law. 
Hence proceeded that dissoluteness of manners, which pre- 
vailed among the Jews during Christ's ministry on earth. 
Hence also the divine Saviour compares the people to sheep 
without a shepherd, and their doctors to men who, though 
deprived of sight, yet pretended to show the way to others, j 

In taking a view of the corruptions, both in doctrine 
and practice, which prevailed among the Jews at the time 

* Robertson. — About this period the pagans expected some great 
king, or glorious person, to be born. Hence Virgil, the Roman poet, 
who lived at this time, in his fourth eclogue, describes the blessings of 
the government of some great person, who was, or should be born about 
this time, in language agreeable to the Jewish prophet's description of 
the Messiah and his kingdom. 

f Mosheim, vol. i. p. 38. 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

of Christ's appearance, we find that the external worship 
of God was disfigured hy human inventions. Many learn- 
ed men have observed that a great variety of rites were 
introduced into the service of the temple, of which no tra- 
ces are to be found in the sacred writings. This was ow- 
ing to those revolutions which rendered the Jews more 
conversant than they had formerly been with the neighbour- 
ing nations. They were pleased with several of the cere- 
monies which the Greeks and Romans used in the worship 
of the pagan deities, and did not hesitate to adopt them in 
the service of the true God, and add them as an ornament 
to the rites which they had received by divine appoint- 
ment. 

The Jews multiplied so prodigiously, that the narrow 
bounds of Palestine were no longer sufficient to contain 
them. They poured, therefore, their increasing numbers 
into the neighbouring countries with such rapidity, that at 
the time of Christ's birth there was scarcely a province in 
the empire, where they were not found carrying on com- 
merce, and exercising other lucrative arts. They were 
defended in foreign countries against injurious treatment 
by the special edicts cf the magistrates. This was abso- 
lutely necessary, since in most places the remarkable dif- 
ference of their religion and manners from those of other 
nations, exposed them to the hatred and indignation of ihe 
ignorant and bigoted multitude. M All this (says Dr. 
Mosheim) appears to have been most singularly and wise- 
ly directed by the adorable hand of an interposing provi- 
dence, to the end that this people, which was the sole de- 
pository of the true religion, and of the knowledge of one 
supreme God, being spread abroad through the whole earth, 
might !)• where, hy their example, a reproach to su* 

Station, contribute in some measure to check it ; and 
thus prepare the way for that yet fuller discovery of di- 
vine truth, which was to shine upon the world from the 
ministry and gospel of the Son of God. 5 



INTRODUCTION. 



SECTION III. 



At the important era of Christ's appearance in the 
world, two kinds of philosophy prevailed among the civil- 
ized nations. One was the philosophy of the Greeks, 
adopted also by the Romans ; and the other that of the 
Orientals, which had a great number of votaries in Persia, 
Syria, Chaldea, Egypt, and even among the Jews. The 
former was distinguished by the simple title of philosophy ; 
the latter was honoured by the more pompous appellation 
of sciefice or knowledge, since those who adhered to the lat- 
ter sect pretended to be the restorers of the knowledge of 
God which was lost in the world. The followers of both 
these systems, in consequence of vehement disputes and dis- 
sensions about several points, subdivided themselves into 
a yariety of sects. It is however to be observed, that all 
the sects of the oriental philosophy deduced their various 
tenets from one fundamental principle, which they held in 
common ; but the Greeks were much divided about the 
first principles of science. 

'Amongst the Grecian sects there were some who de- 
claimed openly against religion, and denied the immortal- 
ity of the soul ; and others who acknowledged a Deity, and 
a state of future rewards and punishments. Of the former 
kind were the Epicureans and Academics, of the latter the 
Tlatonists and Stoics. See an account of those respective 
denominations in the dictionary. 

The oriental philosophy was popular in several nations 
at the time of Christ's appearance. Before the commence- 
ment of the Christian era it was taught in the east, whence 
it gradually spread through the Alexandrian, Jewish^ and 
Christian schools. 

Those who professed to believe the oriental philosophy, 
were divided into three leading sects, which were subdi- 
vided into others. Some imagined two eternal principles, 
from whence all things proceeded ; the one presiding over 



lb INTRODUCTION. 

light, the other over matter, and by their perpetual con- 
flict explaining the mixture of good and evil that appears 
in the universe. Others maintained that the being, whicli 
presided over matter, was not an eternal principle, but a 
subordinate intelligence ; one of those which the supreme 
God produced from himself. They supposed that this be- 
ing was moved by a sudden impulse to reduce to order the 
rude mass of matter which lay excluded from the mansions 
of the Deity, and also to create the human race. A third 
sect entertained the idea of a triumvirate of beings, in 
which the supreme Deity was distinguished both from the 
material evil principle, and from the Creator of this sub- 
lunary world. — That these divisions did really subsist, is 
evident from the history of the Christian sects which em- 
braced this philosophy,* 

From blending the doctrines of the oriental philosophy 
with Christianity, the Gnostic sects, which were so nume- 
rous in the first centuries, derive their origin. Other de- 
nominations arose, which aimed to unite Judaism with 
Christianity. Many of the pagan philosophers, who were 
converted to the Christian religion, exerted all their art 
and ingenuity to accommodate the doctrines of the gos- 
pel to their own schemes of philosophy. In each age of 
the church new systems were introduced, till, in process of 
time, we find the Christian world divided into that prodi- 
gious variety of sentiment, which is exhibited in the fol- 
lowing pages. 



A 



DICTIONARY 



OF ALL 



RELIGIONS. 



ABRAHAMITES, differ- 
ent denominations in the mid- 
dle ages, called after their re- 
spective leaders ; one of which 
was condemned hy Theophilus 
for worshipping images, and 
another united with the Paali- 
cians.* 

ABYSSINIAN CHURCH, 
that established in the empire 
of Abyssinia. They maintain 
that the two natures are united 
in Christ, without either confu- 
sion or mixture ; so that though 
the nature of our Saviour be 
really one, yet it is at the same 
time two-fold and compound. 

The Abyssinian church em- 
braced these tenets in the sev- 
enth century. They disown the 
pope's supremacy, and tran- 
substantiation, though they be- 
lieve the real presence of Christ 
in the sacrament, and adminis- 
ter the communion in both 



kinds. Like the Roman catho- 
lics, they offer their devotions 
and prayers to the saints, and 
believe in a state of purgatory. 
They use confession, and receive 
jyenance and absolution from the 
priests. f Their divine service 
consists in reading the Scrip- 
tures, administering the Eu- 
charist, and reading some Hom- 
ilies of the Fathers. They use 
different forms of baptism ; and 
keep both Saturday and Sun- 
day as sabbaths. They are 
circumcised, and abstain from 
swine's flesh ; not out of re- 
gard to the Mosaic law, but 
purely as an ancient custom of 
their country. They read the 
whole four evangelists regular- 
ly every year in their church- 
es ; and when they speak of an 
event, they say, " It happened 
in the days of Matthew," L e. 
while Matthew was reading in 



* Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. i. p. 10. 

f Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 172. vol. iii. p. 492. Mod, Univ. Hist, vol, XV. p. 174 
—177. Ludolph's Hist, of Ethiopia. 



ADE 



20 



AFG 



their churches. They are a 
branch of the Cophts. 

*ACACIANS, two ancient 
sects, the one followers of Aca- 
cius, an Arian Bishop of Caesa- 
ria: the other named after Aca- 
cius Patriarch of Constantino- 
ple, who favoured the Eutychi- 
ans.f 

♦ACADEMICS, an ancient 
Philosophical sect, which taugi it 
in a grove near Athens, sacred 
to Academus, who was one of 
their heroes. They were orig- 
inally the disciples of Socrates 
and Plato ; hut in after times 
neglected the plain and useful 
truths which they had taught, 
and devoted themselves to the 
most abstruse and incompre- 
hensible studies : they have been 
confounded, by Mr. Hume and 
others, with the Sceptics.:): 

ACEPHALI, [headless,] a 
branch of the Eutychians, who 
had been deserted by their chief. 

ADAMITES, a denomina- 
tion in Ihc second century, who 

erted, that since their re- 
demption by the death of Chi 

ire as innocent as Adam 

: ill, and are accused 

of pi naked in their as- 

!t was renewed in 

fteenth c< mi-v by one Pi- 

. a native of Flande 

ADESi tIANS,[from 

to be present,] a branch 

beliei - 



ed the literal presence of 
Christ's body in the elements 
of the eucharist, though in a 
different manner from the Ro- 
manists. 

ADIAPHORISTS, those 
moderate Lutherans who fol- 
lowed Melancthon, and sub- 
scribed the interim. See Lu- 
therans. 

ADOPTIANI, a sect, who 
in the eighth century taught 
that Jesus Christ w r as not the 
natural, but adopted Son of 
God.il 

AERIANS, a denomination 
which arose about the year 342. 
They were so called from one 
Aerius, a monk, and Semi- Ari- 
an. He opposed episcopacy, 
prayers for the dead, stated 
fasts and feasts, &c.^f 

AETIANS, a branch of Ari- 
ans in the fourth century, who 
arc said to have maintained that 
faith without works was suffi- 
cient to salvation ; and that no 
sin, however grievous, would 
be imputed to the faithful ; and 
they pretended to immediate 
revelations. 

AFGHANS, a people in In- 
dia, inhabiting a province of 
( abul, or Cabulistato, who 
boast of being descended from 
Saul, the first king 6t Israel. 
They say that their great an- 
irwas raised from the rank 
of a shepherd, not for any 



.10. f Kncv. D 

i. p. 418. H I ibrary, vol. i. p. 49. 

n. vol. i. p. 49. % Mosheinij vol. i. p. 314. 

M V. 



AFG 



21 



ALB 



princely qualities which he pos- 
sessed, but because his stature 
was exactly equal to the length 
of a rod given by the angel Ga- 
briel to the prophet Samuel, as 
the measure of royal stature. 

This story is supposed to be 
one of the fictions which Ma- 
homet borrowed from the 
latter rabbins. Sir William 
Jones, however, though he gave 
no credit to this fable, seems to 
have had no doubt but that the 
Afghans are descendants of Is- 
rael carried off in the captivity 
of the ten tribes. 

This great man strongly re- 
commended an inquiry into the 
language, literature, and histo- 
ry of the Afghans. " We 
learn," said he, " from Esdras, 
that the ten tribes, after a wan- 
dering journey, came to a coun- 
try, called Arsareth, where we 
may suppose they settled. Now 
the best Persian historians af- 
firm, that the Afghans are de- 
scended from the Jews; and they 
have among themselves tra- 
ditions of the same import. It 
is even asserted that their fam- 
ilies are distinguished by the 
names of Jewish tribes, though 
since their conversion to Is- 
lamism they have studiously 
concealed their origin. The 
language they use has a mani- 
fest resemblance to the Chal- 
daic, and a considerable dis- 
trict under their dominions is 
called Hazareth, which might 



easily have been changed from 
Arsareth "^ 

AGNOETJ3, [unknowing,] 
a denomination of the fourth 
century, followers of Theophvo- 
nius,the Cappadocian,who call- 
ed in question the omniscience 
of God ; alleging that he knew 
things past only by memory, 
and future only by an uncertain 
prescience. Another sect of 
the same name arose about the 
year 535, who followed the sen- 
timents of Themistius, deacon 
of Alexandria, who, from Mark 
xiii. 32, denied that Christ, in 
any sense, knew the day of 
judgment.f 

fAGONISTICI, aname giv- 
en to certain followers of Do- 
natus, who used to attend the 
public markets, fairs, &c. to 
contend in favour of his princi- 
ples. They were properly itin- 
erant Polemics $ and are some- 
times called Circuitores, Cir- 
celliones4 &c. 

AGYNIANS, a small sect 
ahout the end of the seventh cen- 
tury. They condemned the 
use of certain meats, and mar- 
riage, whence their name. 

ALBANENSES, and AL- 
II AN IS were petty sects of 
the eighth century, the proba- 
ble remains of the Gnostics and 
Mancheaiis 9 which see. 
' ALBIGENSES, so called 
from their first residence in Al- 
bi and Albigeois. A denomina- 
tion remarkable for their oppo- 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. ii. p. 76, and Works of Sir William Jones, vol. i 
p, 336. f Broughton, P« 26. * Ency. Brit. 



ALM 



22 



AME 



sition to the discipline and cer- 
emonies of the church of Rome. 
Their opinions were similar to 
the Waldenses, which see. 

ALLEN1TES, the disciples 
of Henry Allen, of Nova Sco- 
tia, who began to propagate his 
doctrines in that country ahout 
the year 177 8, and died in 
1783, during which time he 
made many proselytes, and at 
his death left a considerable 
party behind him, though now 
much declined. He published 
several treatises and sermons, 
in which he declares, that the 
souls of all the human race are 
emanations, or rather parts of 
the one great Spirit ; that they 
were all present in Eden, and 
were actually in the first trans- 
gression. He supposes that our 
first parents in innocency were 
pure spirits, and that the mate- 
rial world was not then made ; 
but that in consequence of the 
fall, that mankind might not 
sink into utter destruction, the 
world was produced, and men 
clothed with material bodies ; 
ami thai aH the human race 
will, in their turn, be invested 
with such bodies* and in them 
enjoy a stale of probation for 
immortal happiness.* 

ALMARICIANS, the fol- 
lowers of Almarir, professor of 
logic and theology at Paris, in 
the fifteenth century. Seoppos- 
ed the worship of saints and ima- 
; and his enemies charged 
1 1 1 in with maintaining thai in 



his time the reign of the Holy 
Spirit commenced, in which 
the sacraments and all exter- 
nal worship were to be abol- 
ished, f 

ALOGIANS, a denomina- 
tion in Ania Minor in the second 
century ; so called because they 
denied the divine x'oyo^ or word, 
and the writings of St. John, 
attributing them to Cerinthus. 
But Dr. Lardner denies the 
existence of such a sect, as not 
being mentioned by any con- 
temporary writer.:): 

^AMERICAN SECT, New, 
a congregation lately arisen in 
Pennsylvania, among the Welsh 
emigrants to that country un- 
der the auspices of the late 
Rev. M. J. Rces, who died at 
Somerset, in that state, in 1804. 
Their tenets are comprised in 
the following articles of their 
religious constitution. The 
convention shall be called the 
Christian Church, and never by 
any other name. Jesus Christ 
is the only head : believers in 
him, the only members : and 
the New Testament, the only 
ride of die fraternity. In men- 
tal matters, each member shall 
enjoy his own sentiments, and 
freely discuss every subject: 
but iu discipline, a strict con- 
formity with the precepts of 
Christ is required. Every dis- 
tant society shall have the same 
power of admitting members* 

electing officers, &C, Dele- 
gates from the different congra- 



; la, 17B>. f Moshoim, vol. 
I , vol. i. p. 3 3. fere tics, p. 446. 



AMM 



23 



ANG 



gations shall meet from time to 
time, to consult the general in- 
terest. At every meeting for 
religious worship, collections 
shall be made for the poor, and 
the promulgation of the gospel 
among the Heathen.* 

AMMONIANS, so called 
from Ammonias Saccas, who 
taught with the highest applause 
in the Alexandrian school,about 
the conclusion of the second cen- 
tury. This learned man at- 
tempted a general reconciliation 
of all sects, whether philosoph- 
ical or religious ; his creed 
was therefore a mixture of 
Christianity and oriental Phi- 
losophy, in which he was deep- 
ly skilled. 

With regard to moral disci- 
pline, Ammonius permitted the 
people to live according to the 
law of their country, and the 
dictates of nature : but a more 
sublime ruie was laid down for 
the wise. They were to raise 
above all terrestrial things, by 
the towering efforts of holy 
contemplation, those souls, 
whose origin was celestial and 
divine. They were ordered to 
extenuate, by hunger, thirst, 
and other mortifications, the 
sluggish body, which restrains 
the liberty of the immortal spir- 
it, that in this life they might 
enjoy communion with the su- 
preme Being, and ascend after 
death, active and unincumber- 
ed to the universal Parent, to 
live in his presence forever. j 



AMSDORFIANS, the fol- 
lowers of Amsdorf, a kind of 
Antinomians in the sixteenth 
century, who are said to have 
maintained that good works 
were not only unprofitable, but 
even opposite and pernicious to 
salvation 4 

f ANABAPTISTS, (re-bap- 
tizers,) a sect which arose in 
the time of Luther's Reforma- 
tion in Germany, and excited 
various insurrections, under 
pretence of erecting the king- 
dom of Christ on earth.§ See 
Fifth Monarchy Men. It is but 
justice to remark, that this sect 
agreed scarcely in any thing 
with the modern Baptists, ex- 
cept in the circumstances of re- 
jecting infant baptism, and 
practising immersion. See 
Baptists. 

fANCHORITES, (or An- 
chorets,) Hermits : certain pri- 
mative monks who chose the 
solitude of caves and deserts 
to avoid the temptations of the 
world. 

ANGELITES, a denomina- 
tion which sprung up about the 
year 494 ; so called from An- 
gelium, in Alexandria, where 
they held their first meetings. 
They were called likewise from 
different leaders, Serverites, 
Damianists and Theodosians. 
They denied that either of the 
persons of the Trinity were 
self-existent ; but taught there 
is a common Deity existing in 
them all ; and that each is God 



* Evans' Sketch of all Religions. 

* Diet. Art. Scien. vol. i. r>. 131. 



| Mosheim, vol i. p. 137 — 144. 
^ Scotcij Theolo^. D'^ct 



ANT 



24 



ANT 



by a participation of this Dei- 
ty.* 

ANOMCEANS, a name by 
which the pure Arians were 
distinguished in the fourth 
century, from the Semi- Arians. 
The word is taken from 'Avjp- 
o«yg, different, dissimilar. jSee 
Arians. 

ANTHROPOMORPHITES, 
a sect in the tenth century ; 
so denominated from AvfyaToq 
man, and Ma^jj shape: be- 
cause they maintained that the 
Deity was clothed with a human 
form, and seated like an earth- 
ly monarch upon a throne of 
state; and that his angelic 
ministers were beings arrayed 
in white garments, and fur- 
nished with natural wings. 
They take every thing spoken 
of God in scripture in a literal 
sense, particularly when it is 
said that God made man after 
his own image.\ 

*ANTIBURGHERS, dis- 
senters from the Church of 
Scotland, chiefly in matters 
of church government ; and 
from the Burgher Seccders, in 
refusing the Burgess oath. 
See Burghers and Sccders.§ 

\\ T1NOMLVNS. They 

derive their name from *vt/ a- 

iist, and *ifiH law, as being 

iust the moral law ; not 

rely as a covenant of life. 
but also as a rale of condut t to 
believers. 

In the nth century, 



while Luther was eagerly em- 
ployed in censuring and refut- 
ing the popish doctors, who 
mixed the law and gospel to- 
gether, and represented eternal 
happiness as the fruit of legal 
obedience, a new teacher aroSe. 
whose name was John Agrico- 
la, a native of Isleben, and an 
eminent doctor in the Lutheran 
church. His fame began to 
spread in the year 1538, when 
from the doctrine of Luther now 
mentioned, he took occasion to 
advance sentiments which drew 
upon him the animadversion of 
that reformer. 

The doctrine of Agricola is 
said to be in itself obscure, and 
is thought to have been misrep- 
resented by Luther, who wrote 
against him with acrimony, and 
first styled him and his follow- 
ers Antinomians. Agricola de- 
fended himself, and complained 
that opinions were imputed to 
him, which he did not hold. 

The writings of Dr. Crisp? 
in the seventeenth century, have 
been generally considered as 
favourable to Antinomianism, 
though he acknowledges, that 
u in respect to the rule of righ- 
teousness, or the matter of obe- 
dience, we are under the law 
still; or else (as he adds) we 
are lawless, to live every man 
as tod in his own eyes, 

which no true Christian dares 
much as to think/' The 
following sentiments, however, 



• Broughton, vol.i. p. < 4( >. j Ibid. p. 51. 

hton, vol. i. p. 55. Mo$heimj vol. ii.p. 227. 
Theolog.D tfofheim, vol. iv.p. 321. 



ANT 



25 



ANT 



among others appear to be 
taught in his sermons. " The 
law is cruel and tyrannical, re- 
quiring what is naturally im- 
possible. The sins of the elect 
were so imputed to Christ, as 
that though he did not commit 
them, yet they became actually 
his transgressions, and ceased 
to be theirs. Christ's righ- 
teousness is so imputed to the 
elect, that they, ceasing to be 
sinners, are as righteous as he 
was."* 

«f An elect person is not in 
a condemned state while an 
unbeliever, and should he hap- 
pen to die before God call him 
to believe, he would not be lost. 
All signs and marks of grace 
are doubtful evidences of heav- 
en ; it is the voice of the Spir- 
it of God to a man's own spir- 
it, speaking particularly in the 
heart of a person. Son, be of 
good cheer, thy sins are forgiven 
thee, that is the great and only 
evidence which can determine 
the question. The whole es- 
sence of faith is nothing else 
but the echo of the heart, an- 
swering the foregoing voice of 
the Spirit, and word of grace ; 
the former declaring, Thy sins 
are forgiven thee ; the latter an- 
swering, My sins are forgiven 
me. God sees no sin in be- 
lievers, nor does he afSict them 

* Most of those who are styled Antinomians, believe that the justification of 
sinners is an eternal act of God, not only preceding all acts of sin, but the ex- 
istence of the sinner himself; though some suppose with Dr. Crisp, that the elect 
were justified at the time of Christ's death. For a particular account of 
the shades of difference among this denomination, the reader is referred to the 
authors mentioned in the following page. 

t Crisp's Sermons, vol. if. p. 94, 115, 119.269, 270, 276, 298, 363,466, 
493, &c. 

4 



on this account. Repentance 
and confession of sin are not 
necessary to forgiveness. A be- 
liever may certainly conclude 
before confession, yea, as soon 
as he hath committed sin, the 
interest he hath in Christ, and 
the love of Christ embracing 
him." 

Some of the principal passa- 
ges of scripture, from whence 
these sentiments were defended^ 
are the following : He was 
made sinfor us, who knew no sin. 
— Who shall lay any thing to 
the charge of God 9 s elect? — Their 
sins and their iniquities will I re- 
member no more.-Ml things work 
together for good to them that 
love God. &Cor. v. 21. Rom. 
viii. S3. Heb. viii. 12. Rom. 
viii. 28.f 

Many of those, who in the 
present day adopt these princi- 
ples, reject the moral law as a 
rule of conduct to believers, 
disown personal and progres- 
sive sanctification, and hold it 
inconsistent for a believer to 
pray for the forgiveness of his 
sins. These are properly An- 
tinomians. 

There are others who reject 
these notions, and many of 
those advanced by Dr. Crisp, 
who yet have been denominat- 
ed, by their opponents, Anti- 
Bomians. 



m 



ANT 



2(5 



APO 



Some of the chief of those, 
whose writings have been con- 
siderd as favouring Antinomi- 
anism,are, Crisp, Eaton, Rich- 
ardson, Saltmarsh, Town, Hus- 
sey, kc. These have been an- 
swered by Gataker, Sedgwick, 
Bull, Williams, 3eart, Ace. to 
which may be added, Fletch- 
er's Four Checks to Antinom- 
ianism ; and Bellamy's Essay 
on the nature and glory of the 
Gospel. 

Mr.Evans asserts, that " there 
are many Antinomians, indeed, 
of a singular cast in Germany, 
and other parts of the conti- 
nent ; they condemn the mor- 
al law as a rule of life, and yet 
profess a strict regard to the 
interests of practical religion." 

*ANTIP^EDOBAPTISTS, 
those whe reject infant bap- 
tism. See Baptists. 

*ANTISABBATARIANS, 
tliosc who reject the observa- 
tion of the Sabbath, under the 
idea that it was obligatory on 
the Jews only; and maintain 
that no one day is now more 
holy than anothe 

ANTITACTJE, a branch of 
the Gnostics, who held that 
God* the Creator of the uni- 
versej was good and just : but 
that one of his creatures had 
created evil, and engaged man- 
kind to follow it in opposition 
to God ; and that i'» is the duty 
of mankind to oppose the au- 
thor of evil, In order to avenge 

# Scotch Theol.Dict 

<i Broughton;vol. i. p. 58. 

• Ten I.- v'b Bccleti Hitt vol. i. i'. 



God of his enemy. See Gnos- 
tics. 

ANTITRINITARIANS, a 
general name given to all those 
who deny the doctrine of the 
Trinity, and particularly to the 
Avians and Socinians. 

APELLjEANS, followers of 
Apelles in the second century, 
who believed in a supreme God, 
and in an inferiour one formed 
by him. He denied the resur- 
rection.:}: 

APHTHARTODOCITES, 
a sect in the sixth century, who 
held that the body of Jesus 
Clirist w&s incorruptible, and not 
subject to death They were 
a branch of the Eutychians.§ 

APOCARITJES, a sect in 
the third century sprung from 
the Manicheans, who held that 
the soul of man was of the es- 
sence of God. (I 

APOLLINARIANS, a de- 
nomination in the fourth cen- 
tury, who asserted that Christ's 
person was composed of a un- 
ion of the true divinity and a 
human body, endowed with a 
- nsitive soul ; hut without the 
reasonable one, the divinity sup- 
plying its place; the human 
body united to the divine spirit 
making one nature only.^j 

APOSTOLUS, a denomi- 
nation in the twelfth century, 
who professed to exhibit in their 
lives and manners the piety and 
virtues of the holy apostles. 
They held it unlawful to take 



"9. 



I liner's Heretics, 315, &c. 
U lb. p. 60. 



ARI 



27 



ARI 



an oath, renounced the things 
♦of this world, and preferred 
celibacy to wedlock.^ 

AQUARIANS, a denomina- 
tion in the second century, who, 
under pretence of abstinence, 
made use of water instead of 
wine in the eucharist. See En- 
cratites. 

ARABACI. They sprung 
up in the year 207, denied the 
immortality of the soul, and be- 
lieved that it perishes with the 
body ; but maintained, at the 
same time, that it was to be 
again recalled to life with the 
body, by the power of God.f 

ARCHONTICS, a denomi- 
nation which appeared about 
the year 175 ; who held that 
archangels created the world, 
denied the resurrection of the 
body, and maintained that the 
God of sabaoth exercised a cru- 
el tyranny in heaven. They 
defended their doctrines by 
books of their own compos- 
ing, styled « The Revelation of 
the Prophets, 59 and the Harmo- 

ARIANS, a denomination, 
which arose about the year 315, 
and owed its origin to Arius, 
presbyter of Alexandria, a man 
of a subtle turn, and remarkable 
for his eloquence. He maintain- 
ed that the Son was totally and 
essentially distinct from the 
Father ; that he was the first 
and noblest of ajl those beings 
whom God the Father had cre- 
ated out of nothing, the instru- 
ment by whose subordinate op- 



eration the Almighty Father 
formed the universe, and there- 
fore inferiour to the Fatherboth 
in nature and dignity. He ad- 
ded, that the holy Spirit was of 
a different nature from that of 
the Father and of the Son, and 
thathehadl)een created by the 
Son. However, during the life 
of Arius, the disputes turned 
principally on the divinity of 
Christ. 

The original Arians were 
divided among themselves, and 
torn into factions, regarding 
each other with the bitterest 
aversion, of whom the ancient 
writers make mention under the 
names of Semi-Arians, Euse- 
bians, Aetians, Eunomians, A- 
cacians, Psatyrians, and others, 
most of which are described in 
this work under their respec- 
tive heads. 

The modern Arians, to prove 
the subordination and inferior- 
ity of Christ to God the Fa- 
ther, argue thus : There are 
various passages of scripture 
where the Father is styled the 
one, or only God. Why callest 
thou me good ? There is none 
good but- one 9 that is God. 
(Matt. xix. 17.) The Father 
is styled God with peculiarly 
high titles and attributes. (See 
Matt, xxiii. 9. — Mark v. 7. 
&c.) It is said in Ephesians 
iv. 6. There is one God and 
Father of all 9 who is above all. 
Our Lord Jesus Christ express- 
ly speaks of another God dis- 
tinct from himself. See Matt. 



* Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 457. f Mosheim, vol. i. p. 294. 

\ Echard's Krrles, Hist. vol. ft. r>. 542. 



ARI 



28 



ARI 



xxvii. 46. — John xx. 17.) He 
not only owns another than 
himself to be God, but also that 
he is above and over himself. 
He declares that his Father is 
greater tlian he, John xiv. £8. 
Our Lord also says, He came 
not in his own but in his Father's 
name and authority; that he 
sought not his own, but God's 
glory ; nor made his own, but 
God's will his rule. See John 
vi. 38 ; xii. 49; xiv. 10. 

In the solemn prayer, utter- 
ed by our Lord just before his 
crucifixion, he declares, This is 
life eternal, that they might know 
thee 9 the only true God, and Je- 
sus Christ, whom thou hast sent. 
John xvii. 3. Our Lord ad- 
dresses one person, calling 
that person The only time God. 
That this person addressed was 
the Father, is evident from the 
commencement of the prayer, 
Father, the hour is come, (verse 
1.) and from the repetition of 
the title Father ui several of 
the subsequent verses (verse 5, 
11, 21, 24, 25.) It follows 
therefore, that the Father is the 
only true God. 

Other p a ss ages of Scripture, 
which prove the same doctrine, 
i which Christ as- 
thaJ the Father alone 
knew the dav of genera] judg- 
ment, Matt \\i\. S6. Mark 
\iii. S2. But of that day and 
'■r Inoweth no man. no. 
not the JingdB winch are in, 
heaven, neither the Son, hut the 

Father only, [f any one being 
besides the Father were God, he 

Would have known the d;iy of 



judgment ; since therefore the 
Father alone knew this day, it ■ 
is evident that he alone is the 
omniscient God. 

The Apostles also declare, 
that our Lord Jesus Christ was 
not God, hut a being distinct 
from him ; that he was subordi- 
nate and inferiour to theFather, 
and derived all his wisdom and 
power from him. 1 Cor. viii. 6. 
But to us there is but one God, 
the Father. Ephes. iv. 6. One 
God and Father of all. Ye are 
Christ's, and Christ is God's. 1 
Cor. iii. 23. that is, as Christ- 
ians are subject to the domin- 
ion of Christ, so Christ is sub- 
ject to the dominion of God. 
The head of Christ is God. 1 
Cor. xi. 3. The one infinite 
mind is repeatedly called not 
only the Father of Jesus, but 
likewise his God. Ephes. i. 3. 
Blessed be the God and Father 
of our Lord Jesus Christ. See 
also Rom. xv. 6. 2 Cor. i. 3. 
Colossinns i. 3. 1 Peter i. 3. 
It is said in 1 Cor. xv. 24, that 
Christ will deliver vv the king- 
dom to God, even the Father. 
Therefore he will be subjected 
to him, and is consequently in- 
feriour. 

There are numerous texts of 
Scripture, in which it isderlar- 
ed thai religious worship is 
ferred to the Father only. S 
Mail. iv. K). John iv. 23. Acts 
i\. M. 1 Cor, 1 — 4. In all 
these, and various other past 
ges, prayers were addressed to 
tht God and Father of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, 

Modern Arians are distin- 



ARI 



29 



AFJ 



guished by the titles High and 
Low ; the former, like the Se- 
mi- Arians, raising the charac- 
ter of Christ as nearly as pos- 
sible to the divinity ; and the 
latter sinking it very nearly to 
mere humanity. The term A- 
rian is now indiscriminately ap- 
plied to those who consider Je- 
sus simply subordinate to the 
Father. Some of them believe 
Christ to have been the Crea- 
tor of the world; but they all 
maintain that he existed pre- 
viously to his incarnation, 
though in his pre-existent state 
they assign him different de- 
grees of dignity. (See Unita- 
rians of Dr. Price's description. J 
See also Piv-existents. 

The opinion of the Arians 
concerning Christ, differs from 
the Gnostics chiefly in two res- 
pects, — (1.) The Gnostics sup- 
posed the pre-existent spirit 
which was in Jesus to have been 
an emanation from the supreme 
Being, according to the princi- 
ples of the philosophy of that 
age, which made creation out 
of nothing, to be an impossi- 
bility. But the Arians suppos- 
ed the pre-existent spirit to 
have been properly created, and 
to have animated the body of 
Christ instead of the human 
soul. — (2.) The Gnostics sup- 
posed that the pre-existent spir- 
it was not the maker of the 



world ; but was sent to rectify 
the evils which had been intro- 
duced by the Being who made 
it. But the Arians supposed 
that their Logos was the Being, 
whom God had employed in 
making the universe, as well 
as in all his communications 
with mankind.* 

For the difference between 
Arians and Socinians. See 
Socinians. 

ARISTOTELIANS, the dis- 
ciples of Aristotle, a famous 
Grecian philosopher, who flour- 
ished about 485 years before 
Christ. He taught that the uni- 
verse existed from eternity, but 
admitted the existence of a Dei- 
ty, whom he styled the first 
Mover; and whose nature he 
represented as somewhat sim- 
ilar to a principle of power, giv- 
ing motion to a machine. In 
producing motion, he taught, 
that the Deity acts not volun- 
tarily ,but necessarily ;— not for 
the sake of other beings, but for 
his own pleasure ; and that hap- 
py in the contemplation of him- 
self, he is entirely regardless 
of human affairs. Nothing oc- 
curs in his writings, which de- 
cisively determines whether he 
supposed the soul of man mor- 
tal or immortal. 

Respecting ethics, he taught, 
that happiness consists in the 
virtuous exercise of the mind ; 



* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 335, 442, 443. Formey's Eoeles; Hist. 
vol. i. p. 76. Priestley's Hist, of Early Opinions, vol. iv. p. 168 Clarke's Scrip- 
ture Doctrine of the Trinity, p. 1, % 3, 46. Emlyn's Extracts, p. 9, 10, 11, 
21. Yates' Vindication of Unitarianism, p. 69, 70, 79. Theological Reposi* 
lory, vol. iv. p. 276. Doddridge's Lectures, p. 401. Evans' Sketch, p. 59. Sec 
also Ben Mordecai's Apology, written by Mr. Henry Taylor. 



ARM 



30 



ARM 



and that virtue consists in pre- 
serving that mean in all things, 
which reason and prudence pre- 
scribe. It is the middle path 
between two extremes, one of 
* which is vicious through ex- 
cess, the other through de- 
fect.^ 

ARMENIANS, a division of 
Eastern Christians, so called 
from Armenia in Asia, a coun- 
try they originally inhabited. 
Their sentiments are similar 
to those of the Greek Church. 
See that article. 

In the rites and ceremonies 
of the Armenian church, there 
is so great a resemblance to 
those of the Greeks, that a par- 
ticular detail might be super- 
fluous. Their liturgies also 
are either essentially the same, 
or at least ascribed to the same 
author. See Syrian Christians. 
The Armenian was consid- 
ered as a branch of the Greek 
Church, professing the same 
faith, and acknowledging the 
same subjection to the See of 
Constantinople, till near the 
middle of the sixth century. 
At that time the doctrine of the 
Monophysites* spread far and 
wide through the regions of 
Africa and Asia, comprehend- 
ing the Armenians also among 
its votaries. When they re- 
ceded from holding communion 
iii the Greeks, they made no 
change in their ancient Epis- 
copal form of church govern- 
ment ; but only claimed the 



privilege of choosing their own 
spiritual rulers. 

The Armenians are scatter- 
ed all over Asia, and have 
formed settlements, wherever 
they have found an opening for 
trade. They have churches at 
Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, 
and in all the principal trad- 
ing countries in that part of 
the globe, and extend to Je- 
rusalem, Constantinople, and 
Russia.f 

ARMINIANS. They de- 
rive their name from James 
Arminius, who was born in 
Holland 1560. He was the 
first pastor of Amsterdam, af- 
terwards professor of divinity 
at Leyden ; and attracted the 
esteem and applause of his very 
enimies by his acknowledged 
candour, penetration and piety. 
He had been a pupil of "Theo- 
dore Beza, who adhered to the 
Calvinistic doctrines in the 
strictest manner, but Arminius 
thinking the tenets of Calvin, 
with regard to free-will, pre- 
destination and grace, contrary 
to the mild arid amiable perfec- 
tions of the Deity, began to ex- 
press his doubts concerning 
them in the year 1591; and 
upon further inquiry, adopted 
sentiments more nearly resem- 
bling those of the Lutherans, 
than rff the Calvinisls. 

The principal tenets of the 
Arminians are comprehended 
in five articles, to which are 
added a Tew of the arguments 



* Enfield's Philosophy, vol i. 
f Brouffhton'a ll\j. Lib 
nopie, p. 383. 



p. 229. Dallaway's Hist, of Constant!. 



ARM 



31 



ARM 



they make use of in defence of 
their sentiments. 

I. That God has not fixed 
the future state of mankind by 
an absolute, unconditional de- 
cree j but determined from all 
eternity to bestrow salvation 
on those, who he foresaw would 
persevere unto the end in their 
faith in Jesus Christ; and to 
inflict everlasting punishments 
on those, who should continue 
in their unbelief, and resist un- 
to the end his divine succours. 

For, as the Deity is just, ho- 
ly and merciful ,• wise in all 
his counsels, and true in all his 
declarations to the sons of men, 
it is inconsistent with his attri- 
butes, by an antecedent decree, 
to fix our commission of so 
many sins in such a manner, 
that there is no possibility for 
us to avoid them. And he rep- 
resents God dishonourably, 
who believes,that by his reveal- 
ed will he hath declared he 
would have all men to be sav- 
ed, and yet by an antecedent 
secret will, he would have the 
greater part of them to perish. 
That he has imposed a law up- 
on them, which he requires 
them to obey on penalty of his 
eternal displeasure, though he 
knows they cannot do it with- 
out his irresistible grace ; and 
yet is absolutely determined to 
withhold this grace from them, 
and then punish them eternally 
for what they could not do with- 
out his divine assistance. 

II. That Jesus Christ, by his 
death and sufferings, made an 
atonement for the sins of all 



mankind in general, and of ev- 
ery individual in particular ; 
that, however, none but those 
who believe in him can be 
partakers of their divine bene- 
fit. 

That is, the death of Christ 
put all men in a capacity of be- 
ing justified and pardoned, up- 
on condition of their faith, re- 
pentance, and sincere obedi- 
ence to the laws of the new cov- 
enant. 

For the scriptures declare, 
in a variety of places, that 
Christ died for the whole 
world. John iii. 16, 17. God 
so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that who- 
soever believed on him, might 
not perish, hit have everlasting 
life, &c. 1 John ii. 2. He is 
the propitiation, not only for our 
sins, bat for the sins of the whole 
world. And the apostle ex- 
presses the same idea in Heb. 
ii. 9, when he says, Christ tasU 
ed death for every man. Here 
is no limitation of that com- 
prehensive phrase. 

If Christ died for those who 
perish, and for those who do 
not perish, he died for all. 
That he died for those who do 
not perish, is confessed by all ; 
and if he died for any who may 
or shall perish, there is the 
same reason to affirm that he 
died for all who perish. Now 
that he died for such, the scrip- 
ture says expressly in 1 Cor. 
viii. 11. And through thy know* 
ledge shall the weak brother per- 
ish, for whom Christ died. 
Hence it is evident, Christ di- 



ARM 






ARM 



ed for these who perish, and 

for those who do not peMsh : 

lierefore he died for all men. 

ill. That mankind are not 
lly depraved ; and that the 
sin of our first parents is not 
Imputed to ns, nor shall wc be 
hereafter punished for any but 
our own persona] trail 
sions. 

For, if all men are utterly 
unable to do good, and con- 
tinually inclined to all manner 
of wickedness^ if follows they 
not mora] agents. For 
how arc we capable of perform- 
ing our duty,or of regulating our 
actions by a law, commanding 
good and forbidding evil, if our 
minds are bent to nothing but 
i is evil ? Then sin must, 

be natural to ns ; and if natur- 

;v with regard 

to us ; and if n y, then 

iin. For what is natural 

to ns. as hunger, thirst, &c. we 

by no means hinder ; and 

what we can by no moans hinder, 

ot our sin. Thereforcman- 

kind arc nol totally depraved. 

Thai the >in of*our first pa- 

nol imputed to us is 

lent, be I h < \ il 

itted v 

■ i their n 

I, and belong 

v !<> tll< nd WO 

nol in the eye of and 

equitj I i punishabl heir 

trail ;ns. See Jcr. \\\i. 

IV. That lii 

e given to lau 

hal, which is neith- 



but is the foundation of all I 
hortations to repentance, faith, 
kr. For if conversion be 
wrought only by the overpower- 
ing operation of God, and man 
is purely passive iii it, vain 
are all tne commands and ex- 
hortations to wicked men to 
turn from their evil ways : to 
cease to do evil, and learn to do 
well ; to put off the old math 
and put on the new. See Isai. i, 
16. Dent. x. L6. Eph. iv. 
and various other passages of 
ipture to the same purpose. 
Were an irresistible po 
necessary to the conversion of 

sinners, no man could he con- 
verted sooner than he is ; be- 
cause before this irresistible 
action came upon him, he 
could not be converted, and 
when it came upon him he 
could not resist its operation. 
And therefore no man could 

sonably be blamed for ha 
ing lived so long in an uncon- 
verted slate, and it eoidd not. 
be praiseworthy in any person 
who was converted, since no 
man ran resist an overpov. 
in # ^ operation. 

v . That true believers may 
fall from their faith, and forfeit 
finally their 

lor, the doctrine of a pos 
bility of the final departure of 
true believers from the faith 
expressed in Heb. \i. 
// is im for those who 

• if 
• shall fal 

ance* I 
Pefc ii. 

I 



ARN 



33 



ASC 



sages of scripture to the same 
purpose. 

All commands to persevere 
and stand fast in the faith, show 
that there is a possibility that 
believers may not staud fast 
and persevere unto the end. 
All cautions to Christians not 
to fall from grace, are eviden- 
ces and suppositions that they 
may fall. For what we have 
just reason to caution any per- 
son against, must be something 
which may come to pass, and 
be hurtful to him. Now such 
caution Christ gives his disci- 
ples, Luke xxi. 34. To those 
who had like precious faith 
with the apostles, St. Peter 
saith, Beware, lest, being led a- 
way by the errour of the wicked, 
you fall from your own stead- 
fastness. 2 Pet. iii. IT. There- 
fore he did not look upon this 
as a thing impossible ; and the 
doctrine of perseverance ren- 
ders those exhortations and mo- 
tives insignificant, which are 
so often to be found in scrip- 
ture. 

In these points, which are 
considered as fundamental ar- 
ticles in the Arminian system, 
the doctrine of free-will, as im- 
ply ing a self-determining power 
in the mind, is included. See 
Freewillers and Pelagians.* 

ARNOLDISTS, the follow- 
ers of Arnold of Brescia, in the 
t welfth century, who maintained 



publicly, that the treasures and 
revenues of popes, bishops, and 
monasteries, ought to be sol- 
emnly transferred to the ru- 
lers of each state; and that 
nothing was to be left to the 
ministers of the gospel but a 
spiritual authority, and a sub- 
sistence drawn from tithes, and 
from the voluntary oblations 
of the people. f 

ARTEMONITES,adenonv 
ination in the second century, 
so called from Artemon, who 
taught that at the birth of the 
man Christ, a certain divine 
energy, or portion of the di- 
vine, nature, united itself to 
him. 

ARTOTYRITES, a sect in 
the second century, charged 
with celebrating the eucharist 
with bread and cheese : saying 
that the first oblations of men 
were of the fruits of the earth 
and of sheep. They admitted 
women to the priesthood.:): 

ASCLEPIDOT^ANS, a 
sect in the third century ; so 
called from Asclepidotus, who 
taught, like the modern Socin- 
ians, that Jesus Christ was a 
mere man. 

ASCODOGRITES, a de- 
nomination which arose in 
the year 181. It is said they 
brought into their churches, 
bags, skins, or bottles, filled 
with new wine, to represent 
the new wine mentioned by 



* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. v. p. 3, 7, 8. Whitbv on the Five Pints. 
p. 106, 107, &c. Taylor on Original Sin, p. 13—125. *Stackhouse's Body of 
Divinity. Correspondence between Clarke and Leibnitz, and between P' 
lev and Price. 



: Mosheim, vol. ii p. 450. 



t Broughton. vol. i. p. 85. 



ATM 



34 



ATI! 



Christ ; then danced round 
these bottles, and intoxicated 
themselves with the wine. 
They are likewise called As- 
citre, and -both words are de- 
rived from the Greek *?*}>$, a 
bottle* 

ASCODRUTES, a branch 
of Gnostics in the second cen- 
tury, who asserted that divine 
mysteries, being the images of 
invisible things, ought not to 
be represented by visible things, 
nor incorporeal things by cor- 
poreal and sensible. There- 
fore the) rejected baptism and 
cucharist.f 

*ASSIDEANS, a party of 
Jews, which joined Mattathias 
in fighting for the freedom of 
their country. See 1 Mace. ii. 
42; vii. 15. 

ASSURITANS, a branch 

of tlie Donatists, who held that 

Sou was inferiour to the 

Father, and the Holy Ghost to 

the Son. Sec Donatists. 

ATHANASIANS, the fol- 
lowers of Athanasius, bishop of 
Alexandria) who nourished in 
fourth century. He was 
bishop forty six years ; and his 
long administration was spent 
: ii irpetual combat against 
the Brians, ami in defence of 
trine of the Trinity. — 
Th ne of At! b is 

thus expressed in the creed 
which bears his name. " The 
Ca1 kh is jthi 



worship one God in Trinity and 
Trinity in unity. For there is 
one person of the Father, anoth- 
er of the Son, and and another 
of the Holy Ghost. But the 
Godhead of the Father, of the 
Son, and of the, Holy Ghost, is 
all one; the glory equal, the 
majesty coeternal." See Trin- 
itarians. 

This system also includes in 
it, the belief of two natures in 
Jesus, Christ, viz. the divine 
and human, forming one per- 
son. 

To prove the divinity of 
Christ, and his coequality with 
the Father, this denomination 
argue thus : 

In John i. 1. it is expressly 
declared, that In the beginning 
was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was 
God. 

That « the Word," in what- 
ever way we choose to trans- 
late the original term, which is 
so rendered, whether we retain 
this rendering, or give the 
preference to wisdom or rea- 
son, is here to be understood 
as a designation of Jesus Christ, 
appears evident from the whole 
of the subsequent context. It 
bid -;i the fourteenth verse, 

and the Word teas made flesh, 
and among us, ( 

beheld his glory, the glory as o r 
tlir only begotten of fir Father 9 J 
full of grace <rid truth. Sup- 



• Bi L p. L9L i fold. p. 

: • the name of Atliana- 

bj tthan in , I ihop of \ I commonly 

attributed to Vigiliua,t] i, who lived about th< tie fifth ceritury. 



ATH 



35 



ATIi 



posing it then to be admitted, 
that " the Word' 5 here does not 
mean an attribute, or an ab- 
stract quality personified, but 
a person ; and that this person 
is Jesus Christ: — it is clear, 
that the verse contains a plain 
and express declaration of his 
true and proper Divinity, The 
tVordwas God. 

Christ's divinity and coe- 
quality with the Father, are 
plainly taught in Philip, ii. 5, 
6, 7, &c. Let this mind be in 
you, which was also in Christ 
Jesus, who, being in the form of 
God, thought it not robbertj to be 
equal with God, but made him- 
self of no reputation, and took up- 
on him the form of a servant, Sfc. 

Our divine Saviour says of 
himself, I and my Father are 
one, John x. 30. He that has 
seen me, has seen the Father. 
John xiv. 9. Ml things that the 
Father hath, are mine. John 
xvi. 15. Those high and 
strong expressions teach, that 
he is the Supreme God. 

The prophets describe the 
true God as the only Saviour 
of sinners. Hosea xiii. 4. 
Thou shalt know no God but me ; 
for there is no Saviour besides 
me. Jesus Christ not only pro- 
fesses to save sinners, but he 
calls himself the Saviour by 
way of eminence. Hence it is 
evident, that he assumes a char- 
acter, in the most emphatical 
way, which the God of Israel 
had challenged and appropria- 
ted to himself. 

The titles given to Christ in 
the New Testament are the 



same with those given to God 
in the Jewish scriptures. Je- 
hovah is the incommunicable 
name of the Supreme God, sig- 
nifying his eternal, independ- 
ent and immutable existence. 
This name, which is appropri- 
ated to God, (Psalms Ixxxiii. 
18.) is given to Christ. Ro- 
mans xiv. 11. Heb. i. 10. Jesus 
is the person spoken of by St. 
John, whose glory Esaias is 
declared to have seen, when he 
affirms, he saw the Lord of 
Hosts. Therefore Jesus is the 
Lord of Hosts. 

The attributes, which are 
sometimes appropriated to God, 
are applied to Christ. 

Omniscience is ascribed to 
Christ. John xvi. 30. Now we 
are sure, that thou knowest all 
things. To be the searcber of 
the heart, is the peculiar and 
distinguishing characteristic of 
the one true God, as appears 
from Jer. xvii. 10. Yet our 
blessed Lord claims this per- 
fection to himself. J am he, 
saith he, that searcheth the reins, 
and the heart. Rev. ii. 23. 

Omnipresence, another di- 
vine attribute, is ascribed to 
Christ, Matt, xviii. 20. Where 
two or three are gathered togeth- 
er in my name, there am I in the 
midst of them. 

Immutability is ascribed to 
Christ. Heb. i. 10, 11, 12. 
Thou art the same, and thy 
years shall not fail. This is the 
very description, which the 
psalmist gives of the immuta- 
bility of the only true God. See 
also Heb. xiii. 8. 



ATH 



ATH 



Eternity is ascribed to 
Christ, Rev. i. 8. The Son's 
being Jehovah, is another proof 
of his eternity, that name ex- 
pressing necessary existence. 

Christ is also said to have 
almighty power. Heb. i. 3. See 
also Philip, iii. 21, &c. 

The truth and faithfulness 
of God are ascribed to Christ. 
I am , says he, the truth, &c. 

Divine works are also as- 
cribed to Christ, viz. creation, 
preservation, and forgiveness of 
sins. 

There are numerous texts of 
scripture, which assert that 
Christ is the creator of all 
things. See Heb. i. 10. Thou, 
Lord, in the beginning hast laid 
the foundation of the earth, and 
the heavens are the works of thy 
hands. See also Rev. iii. 14. 
1 Cor. viii. 6. and various oth- 
er passages. 

The work of creation is Q\e- 
vy where in scripture represent- 
ed, as the mark and character- 
istic, of the true God. See 2 
Kings xix. 15. Psalm xix. 
1. Hence it is evident, that 
Christ, the creator, is the true 
God. 

Preservation is ascribed to 
Christ Heb, i. 9. Upholding 
all things by the word of his pow- 
er. 

Christ himself say s, in Matt 

i\. f). The Son of JIan hath 
power on earth to forgive sins. 

Christ's being appointed the 
Supreme Judge of the world, is 
tin evidence that he is the true 



God. The God of Israel is 
emphatically styled, the Judge 
of all.* 

Religious worship, though 
appropriated to God, was, by 
divine approbation and com- 
mand, given to Christ. In 
Heb. i. 6. the apostle, speaking 
of Christ, says, Let all the angels 
of God worship him. See also 
Luke xxiv. 52. John v. 23. 
Rev. i. 5, 6 ; v. 13. &c. 

The scripture every where 
asserts, that God alone is to be 
worshipped. The same scrip- 
ture asserts, that our blessed 
Saviour is to be worshipped. 
Thus St. Stephen adores him 
with direct worship : Lord Je- 
sus, receive my spirit. The ob- 
vious consequence of which is, 
our blessed Saviour is God. 

This denomination allege, 
that divine titles, attributes, 
works, and worship, are also 
ascribed to the Holy Ghost. 

Many plead, that the Holy 
Spirit is called Jehovah in the 
Old Testament, by comparing 
Acts xxviii. 26. with Isa. vi. 9. 
And He also appears to be call- 
ed God, Acts x. 4. 

Eternity is clearly the pro- 
perty of the Holy Ghost, who 
is styled, by the author of the* 
epistle to the Hebrews, the B- 
tenud Spirit. Heb. i\. 14. 

Omnipresence is a necessa- 
ry proof of divinity. This at- 
tribute belongs to the Holy 
Spirit : for thus saith the in- 
spired port. Whither shall J go 
from thy Spirit? I\sa.rxxxL\. :. 



Alexander's E isay on the real Deitv of Jesus Christ. 



ATH 



37 



ATH 



Omniscience is ascribed to 
the Spirit. 1 Cor. ii. 10. For 
the Spirit searcheth all things, 
even the deep things of God. 

St. Paul declares, that his 
ability to work all manner of 
astonishing miracles, for the 
confirmation of his ministry, 
was imparted to him by the 
Spirit. Rom. xv. 19. 

The principal passages of 
Scripture which are alleged to 
prove that divine worship is giv- 
en to the Spirit, are Matt, xxviii. 
19. Is. vi. 3 — 9. Acts xxviii. 25. 

The Trinity of persons in 
the Godhead appears from 
the form of baptizing in the 
name of the Father, of the Son, 
and of the Holy Ghost And 
also from the Apostolic bene- 
diction. The grace of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, the love of God, 
and the communion of the Holy 
Ghost be with you all, Amen. 
The Trinity in unity is one Su- 
preme Being, distinguished 
from all others by the name Je- 
hovah. Dent. vi. 4. The Lord 
our God is one Jehovah. Yet 
Christ is Jehovah. Jer. xxiii. 
6. — so is the Spirit. Ezek. viii. 
3. Therefore Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost are one Jehovah. 
They are three persons, but 
have one name and one nature* 

ATHEISTS, those who do 
not believe in the existence of 
a God, but attribute surround- 
ing nature and all its astonish- 



ing phenomena to chance, or 
to a fortuitous concourse of 
atoms : This is called specula- 
tive Atheism. Professing to 
believe in God, and yet acting 
contrary to this belief, is sty led 
practical Atheism. The name 
of Atheist is composed of two 
Greek terms, * and ©A$, signi- 
fying without God, and in this 
sense the appellation occurs in 
the New Testament Ephes. ii. 
12. Without God, (or Atheists) 
in the world. Plato distinguish- 
es three kinds of Atheists. 1. 
Those, who deny the existence 
of the gods absolutely. 2. Those, 
who deny their interference in 
human affairs. 3. Those, who 
admit both, but conceive them 
indifferent to human crimes. 
The first of these, however, are 
the only Atheists in the strict 
and proper sense of the word. 
The latter are rather practical 
Atheists ; and the evidences of 
a Deity are so numerous and 
strong, that many have doubted 
the existence of a real Atheist. 
Some, however, in most coun- 
tries, have avowed the princi- 
ples. In the seventeenth centu- 
ry, Benedict Spinosa, a Jew of 
Amsterdam, was its noted de- 
fender; and Lucillo Vanini, 
an Italian of eccentric charac- 
ter, was condemned and exe- 
cuted 1616 at Toulouse, for his 
Atheistical tenets, which he 
and eleven others had underta- 



* Waterland's Sermons, p. 34, 69, 97 9 164. Abbadie on the Divinity of 
Christ, p. 58, 65, 242. Jones' Doctrine of the Trinity, p. 2, 34, 62. Watts' 
Christian Doctrine of the Trinity. Doddridge's Lectures, p. 392. Robinson's 
Plea. Vindication of Christ's Divinity, p. 263, 269. Wardlaw's Discourses. 
Reply to Yates. 



BAB 



38 



BAP 



ken to disseminate all over Eu- 
rope. In the early days of the 
French revolution, the leading 
members of the convention en- 
deavoured to suppress all reli- 
gion, except the worship of 
their tutelary goddess Liberty ; 
and for this purpose they shut 
up the churches, abolished the 
Sabbath, and 'inscribed upon 
the burying grounds, " Death 
is an eternal sleep." 

Lord Bacon says, that " a 
smattering in philosophy may 
lead a man into Atheism, be- 
cause he looks no farther than 
second causes ; but by diving 
deeper into it, he will behold the 
chain of them linked together, 



which will certainly bring him 
back to God and providence."* 

AUD^EANS, a sect in the 
fourth century ; so called from 
Aud«us, who is said to have at- 
tributed to the Deity a human 
form.f See Jlntropomorphiles. 

AUGUSTINES, an order of 
Monks, who followed the rule 
of St. Augustin, by contraction 
St. Austin, having all things in 
common, &c. A convent of 
these gave name to Austin Fri- 
ars. See Monks. 

AZYMITAE, a name given 
by the Greeks in the eleventh 
century to the Latin church, 
because they used unleavened 
bread in the eucharist4 



B 



Babylonians, or an- 
cient Assyrians. The religion 
of this great nation has been 
considered to be involved in 
much obscurity. It appears, 
however, that they were great 
students in the heavens, and 
blended their religion with as- 
tronomy. They worshipped 
th»' son, moon, and stars, par- 

ularly Venus. At length 
their astronomy sunk into as- 
trology, and their learned 
men became diviners and for- 
tune-tellers* while the multi- 
tude, from worshipping 
heavenly bodies thetnseh es, 
became devote* ie idols 

they had made t< enl 

them. This ;», 



been the state of the religion 
of the Babylonians at the time 
of Nebuchadnezzar, when the 
unbounded ambition of that 
monarch introduced an addi- 
tion to the established worship 
of the land by the deification 
of himsclf.§ 

BAPTISTS, or Antipredo- 
baptists. This denomination 
claim an immediate descent 
from the Apostles, and assert, 
that the constitution of their 
churches is from the authority 
of Jesus Christ himself, and 
his immediate successors. Ma- 
ny others indeed deduce their 
origin as a sect, from much 
later times, and affirm, that 
tbej prang up in Germa- 



Fncy. Bfit H-ick's TheoL Diet. f Mosheim, vol. i. p. 350. -" 
Hist. Diet. vol. i. History of Religion, p. 38, 40. 



BAP 



BAP 



ny in the sixteenth century. 
This denomination of Chris- 
tians is distinguished from 
others by their opinions res- 
pecting the mode and subject 
of baptism. Instead of ad- 
ministering the ordinance by 
sprinkling or pouring water, 
they maintain that it ought to 
be administered only by im- 
mersion ; such they insist is the 
meaning of the Greek word 
(SctTTTify, to wash or dip, so that 
a command to baptize is a 
command to immerse. They 
also defend their practice from 
the phrase, buried with him 
in baptism, from the first ad- 
ministrators repairing to riv- 
ers, and the practice of the 
primitive church after the A- 
postles. 

With regard to the subjects 
of Baptism, this denomina- 
tion allege, that it ought not 
to be administered to children 
or infants at all, nor to adults 
in general; but to those only, 
who profess repentance for sin 
and faith in Christ. Our Sa- 
viour's commission to his a- 
postles, by which Christian 
baptism was instituted, is to go 
and teach all nations, baptizing 
them; &c. that is, not to bap- 
tize all they meet with, but 
first to examine and instruct 
them, and whoever will re- 
ceive instruction to baptize in 
the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost. This construction of 
the passage is confirmed by 
another passage; Go ye into 
all the world, and preach the 



Gospel to every creature; he that 
believeth and is baptized, shall 
be saved. To such persons, 
and to such only this denomi- 
nation says, baptism was ad- 
ministered by the apostles and 
the immediate disciples of 
Christ; for those who were 
baptized in primitive times 
are described as repenting of 
their sins, and believing in 
Christ. See Acts ii. 38 ; viii. 
37. and other passages of 
scripture. 

They farther insist, that all 
positive institutions depend en- 
tirely upon the will and decla- 
ration of the institutor ; and 
that therefore reasoning by an- 
alogy from previous abrogated 
rites, is to be rejected, and the 
express commands of Christ 
respecting the mode and sub- 
jects of baptism ought to be our 
only rule. 

The Baptists in England 
form one of the three denomi- 
nations of Protestant Dissent- 
ers. The constitution of their 
churches, and their modes of 
worship are Congregational or 
Independent. They bore a 
considerable share of the per- 
secutions of the seventeenth 
and preceding centuries, for 
there were some among the 
Lollards and >V ickliffites who 
disapproved of infant baptism. 
There were many of this per- 
suasion anions: the Protestants 
abroad. In Holland, Germa- 
ny, and the North, they wentby 
the names of Anabaptists and 
Mennonites : and in Piedmont 
and the South, they were found 



BAP 



40 



BAP 



ciation. The churches in this 
union keep up a friendly ac- 
quaintance, in some outward 
tilings, with those from whom 
they are separated ; hut in 
things they deem more essen- 
tial, disclaim any connexion 
with them ; particularly as to 
changing ministers and the ad- 
mission of members. 

The Baptists in America,, 
and in the East and West In- 
dies, are chiefly Calvinists. 
But from nearly the first rise 
of this denomination in Ameri- 
ca, there have been some who 
have opposed a number of the 
principal articles in the Calvin- 
istic creed. This party have in- 
creased, and are denominated 
Free Will Baptists. See Free 
Witters. 

The Baptists in Scotland, 
having imbibed a considerable 
part of the principles of Glass 
and Sandeman, have no con- 
nexion with the others. When 
the English Baptists, however, 
engaged in a mission to tli3 
East, they very liberally con- 
tributed towards the transla- 
tion of the scriptures into the 
Eastern languages.! See Hal- 
damites. 

■ The Rev. Robert Hall, wlio holds :in eminent rank among the disscn- 

in England, has lat< lied a work, u On the Terms of Communion, 

>vith a particular v] ntisttand » M Heat* 

e to this . • " There is no position in the whole 

compass of thi which h< 

I no :t of men, are entitled to m indiapenaa- 

condition of communion, what the Wen Testament hi 

ilvation H T i e itabli ih - c1 of 

lie argumei use of, arc re- 

i ious publicatii n. 
f Gale's R t*a Answer to Addington. 

Ittion. McLean on nmis- 

Baptiat Confession of Faith* Rippon's Baptisi i .172, 



amongiheAlbigensesandWal- 
denses. 

The Baptists subsist under 
two denominations ; the par- 
ticular or Calvinistical, and 
the general or Arminian. The 
former is by far the most nu- 
merous. Some of both de- 
nominations allow of mixed 
communion* with Psedobap- 
tists ; others disallow it, and 
allege, that it would be incon- 
sistent in them to admit un- 
baptized persons, (as others arc 
in their view.) to unite with 
them in this ordinance. 

A few of this denomination 
observe the seventh day of the 
week as the Sabbath, appre- 
hending the law which enjoined 
it not to have been repealed by 
Christ, or his apostles. See 
Sabbatarians. 

A considerable number of 
the general Baptists have em- 
braced Arianism, or Socinian- 
ism, on account of which sev- 
eral of their ministers and 
churches, who disapprove of 
these principles, have, within 
the last forty years, formed 
themselves into a distinct con- 
nexion, called The New Asso- 



BAR 



41 



BAS 



The different denominations 
of Baptists all unite in plead- 
ing for universal liberty of 
conscience. See Mennonites, 
Bunkers, &c. 

BARDESANISTES, a de- 
nomination in the second cen- 
tury, the followers of Barde- 
sanes, a native of Edessa, and 
a man of a very acute and pen- 
etrating genius. 

The sum of his doctrine was 
as follows : 

I. That there is a Supreme 
God, pure and benevolent, ab- 
solutely free from all evil and 
imperfection ; and that there is 
also a prince of darkness, the 
fountain of all evil, disorder, 
and misery. 

II. That the Supreme God 
created the world without any 
mixture of evil in its composi- 
tion : he gave existence also to 
its inhabitants, who came out 
of his forming hand, pure and 
incorrupt, endued with subtle 
ethereal bodies, and spirits of a 
celestial nature. 

III. That, when the prince 
of darkness had enticed men to 
sin, then the Supreme God per- 
mitted them to fall into slug- 
gish and gross bodies, formed 
of corrupt matter by the evil 
principle. He permitted also 
the depravation and disorder, 
which this malignant bfcing in- 
troduced, both into the natural 
and moral world ; designing, 
by this permission, to punish 
the degeneracy and rebellion 



of an apostate race. And hence 
proceeds the perpetual conflict 
between reason and passion, in 
the mind of man. 

IV. That, on this account, 
Jesus descended from the up- 
per regions, clothed not with a 
real, but with a celestial and 
aerial body, and taught man- 
kind to subdue that body of 
corruption, which they carry 
about with them in this mortal 
life; and by abstinence, fast- 
ing, and contemplation, to dis- 
engage themselves from the 
servitude and dominion of that 
malignant matter, which chain- 
ed down the soul to low and ig- 
noble pursuits. 

V. That those, who submit 
themselves to the discipline of 
this Divine Teacher, shall, af- 
ter the dissolution of this ter- 
restrial body, mount up to the 
mansions of felicity, clothed 
with ethereal vehicles, or celes- 
tial bodies. 

This denomination was a 
branch of the Gnostics.* See 
Gnostics. 

BARLAAMITES, a denom- 
ination in the sixteenth centu- 
ry, followers of Barlaam, a 
Neapolitan monk, who was call- 
ed a heretic for asserting that 
the light, which surrounded 
Christ on Mount Tabor, was 
not an emanation of the divine 
essence "I" 

BASILIDIANS, a branch of 
the Egyptian Gnostics in the 
second century. Thev acknow- 



* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i.p. 179, 180, 
f Mosheim, vol. ili. p. 374, new edition 
6 



BAS 



42 



BAX 



ledged the existence of one su- 
preme God, perfect in good- 
ness and wisdom, who produc- 
ed from his own substance 
seven beings, or aions, of a most 
excellent nature. Two of these 
awns, called Dunamis and So- 
phia, (i. e. power and wisdom,) 
engendered the angels of the 



highest order. 



These angels 



formed a heaven for their hab- 
itation, and brought forth oth- 
ers of a nature somewhat in- 
feriour to their own, to the 
amount of three hundred and 
sixty live, under their mighty 
chief Abraxas. 

It may be worthy of remark, 
that by this sect the word aion, 
from expressing only the dura- 
tion of beings, was by a meton- 
ymy employed to signify the 
beings themselves. Thus the 
supreme Being was called aioii; 
and the angels were distin- 
guished by the title of aions. 
All this will lead us to the true 
meaning of that word among 
the Gnostics. They had form- 
ed to themselves the notion of 
an invisible world, composed of 
entities, or virtues, proceeding 
from the Supreme Being, and 
succeeding each other at cer- 
tain intervals bf times so as to 
form an eternal chain, of w hjch 
our world was the terminating 
link. To the beings which 
formed this eternal chain, the 
Gnostics assigned a certain 
term of duration, and a cer- 
tain sphere of action. Their 
terms of duration weir at f.rst 



called aions; and themselves 
were afterwards metonymical- 
ly distinguished hy that title. 

These beings, advanced to 
the government of the world 
which they had created, fell by 
degrees from their original pu- 
rity, and soon manifested the 
fatal marks of depravity and 
corruption.* See Ghwstics. 

BAXTERIANS, so called 
from the learned and pious 
Mr. JRichard Baxter, who was 
born in the year 1615. His 
design was to reconcile Cal- 
vin and Arminius. For this 
purpose he formed a middle 
scheme between their systems. 
He taught that God had elect- 
ed some, whom he is determined 
to save, without any foresight 
of their good works ; and that 
others to whom the gospel is 
preached have common grace, 
which if they improve, they 
shall obtain saving grace, ac- 
cording to the doctrine of Ar- 
minius. This denomination 
own, with Calvin, that the mer- 
its of Christ's death are to be 
applied to believers only; but 
they also assert that all men 
are in a state capable of salva- 
tion : to support which opin- 
ion, this learned author alleg- 
es, that it was the nature of 
all mankind which Christ as- 
sumed at his incarnation, and 
Ihe sins of all mankind were 
the occasion of his suffering; 
thai therefore it is not to the 
elect only, hut to all mankind, 
that Christ has commanded his 



* Mosheim, vol i. p. 181—183. Lardner's Heretics, p. 76, &c. 



BEH 



43 



BEH 



ministers to proclaim his gos- 
pel, and offer the benefits which 
he hath procured.* 

*BEGHARDS, [i. e. hard- 
beggars,] feminine Beguines, 
so called from their importuni- 
ty in prayer, and sometimes 
taken more literally ; this was 
a term applied (like Methodists) 
to not less than thirty petty 
sects of very different charac- 
ters in the twelfth and thir- 
teenth centuries.f 

BEHMENISTS, a name 
given to those mystics who 
adopted the explication of the 
mysteries of nature and grace 
as given by Jacob Behmen. — 
This writer w T as born in the year 
1575, at Old Siedenburg near 
Gorlitz, in Upper Lusatia. He 
was a shoemaker by trade j and 
is described as having been 
thoughtful and religious from 
his youth up, taking peculiar 
pleasure in frequenting public 
worship. At length seriously 
considering that speech of our 
Saviour, My Father which is in 
heaven will give the Holy spir- 
it to him that asketh him, he was 
thereby aw T akened to desire that 
promised Comforter; and, con- 
tinuing in that earnestness, he 
was at last, to use his own ex- 
pression, " surrounded with a 
divine light for seven days, and 
stood in the highest contempla- 
tion and kingdom of joys \" Af- 
ter this, about the year 1600, he 
was again surrounded by the 
divine light, and replenished 



with the heavenly knowledge ; 
insomuch that by his inward 
light he saw into the essences, 
uses, and properties of things, 
which were discovered to him 
by their lineaments, figures, and 
signatures. In the year 1610, 
he had a third special illumina- 
tion, wherein still farther mys- 
teries were revealed to him j 
but it was not till the year 
1612, that Behmen committed 
these revelations to writing. 
His first treatise is entitled, 
Aurora, which was seized by 
the senate of Gorlitz before 
completed. His next produc- 
tion is called The Three Trind- 
ples, by which he means the 
dark world, or hell ; the light 
world, or heaven ; and the ex- 
ternal or visible world, which 
we inhabit. In this work he 
more fully illustrates the sub- 
jects treated of in the former, 
and supplies what is wanting in 
that work, showing, (1.) How 
all things came from a work- 
ing-will of the holy, triune, in- 
comprehensible God, through 
an outward, perceptible, work- 
ing, triune power of fire, light, 
and spirit, in the kingdom of 
heaven. — (g.) How and what 
angels and men were in their 
creation ; that they are in and 
from God, his real offspring ; 
that their life begun in and 
from this divine fire, which is 
the Father of light, generating 
a birth of light in their souls ; 
from both which proceeds the 



* Baxter's Cath. Theol. p. 51. 53. Baxter's End of Controy. p. 154. 
■j- Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 232 a 288, &c. new edit. 



BEH 



■44 



BER 



holy Spirit? or breath of divine 
love in the triune creature, 
the triune Creator. — ('3.) 



in 

How some angels, and all men, 
are from God, and what they 
are in their fallen state. — 
How the earth. and ele- 

ments were created, in conse- 
quence of the fall of angels. — 
(5.) Whence there is good and 
evil in all this temporal world ; 
and what is meant by the cu 
that dwells in it.— (6.) Of the 
kingdom of Christ, how i* 
set in opposition to the king- 
dom of hell. — (r.) How man, 
through faith in Christ, is able 
to overcome the kingdom of 
hell, and thereby obtain eternal 
salvation. — .'80 How and whv 
sin and misery shall only reign 
for a time, until God shall, in a 
supernatural way, make fallen 
man rise to the glory of angels. 
The next year Behmen pro- 
duced his Three-fold Life of Man, 
according to the three principles. 
In this work he treats more 
largely of the state of man in 
this world : — That he has — 1. 
That immortal spark of fife 
union to angels and 
—2. That divine life 
whirl) t difference be- 

I 
lc world, 
mon 
lid onlj 
I 
men wro* other 

are the ba 
of all hi- other wril Hi- 



conceptions are often clothed 
under allegorical symbols ; and 
in his latter writings he has 
frequently adopted chemical 
phrases which he borrowed from 
conversation with learned men. 
But as to the matter contained 
in them, he disclaims having 
borrowed it either from men or 
books. He died m the year 
\ 9 and his last words were, 
"Now I go hence into para- 
dise 

Behmen's principles were a- 
dopted by the late ingenious 
and pious Mr. Law, who has 
clothed them in a more modern 
dress, and in a less obscure 
style ; for whose sentiments, see 
article My si 

BENEDICTINES, Monks 
of the order of St. Benedict, 
who were obliged to perform 
their devotions seven times a 
day. and subjected to many pri- 
vations. They claim the hon- 
our of convening the English 
nation and of founding the Me- 
tropolitan church ofCantcHnirv. 

BEREAXS, a sect of iVo- 
ant Di- from the 

church of Scotland, who take 
their title from, and pr 
follow the example of the an- 
cient Bereane, ' V • ■ \Vii. 1 1.) 
in building 1 item of faith 

and practice upon the scripts 
alone without regard to any 
human authority whale 

Mr. Barclay, a Scotch clt 
rrman, was thr rounder of this 

as- 



• Behrpcn's Wot', - .1. Qkcl isofBch. 

p. 1—8. 



BER 



45 



BER 



sembled as a separate society of 
Christians in the city of Edin- 
burgh,. 1773, 

The Bereans agree with the 
established churches of England 
and Scotland respecting the 
trinity, predestination and elec- 
tion, though they allege that 

w doctrines are not 
ently taught in either, but they 
differ iron* them in various 
points. Particularly, they re- 
ject all natural religion : and 
rt. that our knowledge of 
God is from revelation alone. 

They hold faith to be a sim- 
ple credence in God's word. 
They consider personal assur- 
ance* as of the essence of faith. 
They argue, that God has ex- 
pressly declared. He that belirc- 
eth shall be saved : and there- 
fore it i absurd but 
impious, and in a manner call- 
ing God a liar, for a man to 
Bay, "I believe the Gospel, but 
have doubts nevertheless of my 
own salvation.** They main- 
tain that unbelief is the unpar- 
donable sin. 

They consider a great part 
of the Old Testament-hisT 
and the whole book of Psal. 
as typical or prophetic of 
Christ, and do not apply them 
to the experience of private 
Chris See Hutehinsonians. 



In admitting to communion, 
this denomination do not re- 
quire that account of personal 
experience which many other 
churches do. When they ex- 
clude unworthy members for 
immoral conduct* they do not 
think themselves authorizes 
deliver them over to Satan, 
the apostles did : that power 
they consider as restricted to 
the apostles, and to the inspir- 
ed testimony alone : a; d not to 
be extended to any charch on 
earth, or any number of church- 
r a f C h ristians. whet h er de- 
rided by a majority -.or 

by unanimous voices.? 

The doctrines of the Bereans 
have found converts in Eng- 
land. Scotland, and America. 

BEREXGARIANS. a de- 
nomination in the eleventh cen- 
tury, followers of Berengari- 
us. who asserted that the bread 
and wine in the Lord's supper 
not really and essentially. 
but figuratively* changed into 
the body and blood of I 
But his followers were divided 
in opinion : all agreed that the 
eleni aHy 

chan.s^d. though allowed 

them to be chan^d in effect. f 

BERYLLIAXS. i 
from one Beryllus. an Arabian 
bishop in the third century. 



* Mr Barclay says, " By whatever evidence I hold the resurrection of J? 
by the same precise evidence I must hold it for a truth that I aro justified — for 
God hath equally asserted both.* — On this M ? Lean remarks — " The resurrec- 
s a truth independent of my believing", and the s direct testimo- 

ny ; but nv tion is not declared to be a truth until I believe the for- 

mer ; nor is directly asserted, but promised on that provision. If tkmt shaft 
Rom. x. 9.'"' See M'Lean's Commission of the Apostles. 
See B ire lay's Works. XicoV kc 

s , roi i. p/389. 



BIR 



He taught that Christ did not 
exist before Mary ; but that a 
portion of the divine nature was 
united to him at his birth.* 

*BETHLEHEMITES, a 
sect, or rather a religious order, 
distinguished by a red star on 
their breast, which they called 
the Star of Bethlehem. They 
settled at Cambridge in the 
thirteenth century, f 

*BEZPOPOFTSCHINS, a 
class of Russian Dissenters, in- 
cluding all those who either 
have no regular priests, or who 
refuse to acknowledge those of 
the established church : they 
are the Dulwibortsi, Pomoryans, 
Theodosians, and ten others, 
which will be found under their 
places in the alphabet.:): 

BIDDELIANS, the follow- 
ers of John Biddle, aSocinian, 
who in the year 1644 erected 
an independent congregation in 
London. He taught that Jesus 
Christ hath no other than a hu- 
man nature ; and yet, like So- 
cinus. made no scruple of call- 
ing him God, on account of the 
divine sovereignty with which 
he was invested.^ Sec Socini- 
ans. 

BIRMANS, inhabitants of 
the Birman country in India. 
Their Religion originated from 
the same sourer as the Hindoo, 
but differs in some of its tenets. 
They are worshippers of Boodh, 
in which form they believe 
Vishnu appeared in his ninth 



46 BOR 

incarnation, and forhade the de- 
priving any being of life. They 
therefore eat no animal food ; 
and believe that, after having 
undergone a number of trans- 
migrations, they shall at last 
be either received to their Olym- 
pus, or sent to a place of pun- 
ishment. 

The Birmans do not torture 
their bodies like the Hindoos ; 
but think it meritorious to mor- 
tify them by a voluntary ab- 
stemiousness and self-denial. I) 

BOGOMILES, a sect in the 
twelfth century, which sprung 
from the Massalians. They 
derived their name from the 
divine mercy, which its mem- 
bers are said to have incessant- 
ly implored ; for the word bog- 
omiles, in the Mysian tongue, 
signifies calling for mercy from 
above. 

Basilius, a monk at Con- 
stantinople, was their founder, 
and the doctrines he taught, it 
is said, were similar to those of 
the Manicheans ^\ 

'BOHEMIAN BRETH- 
REN, a Society of Christian 
Reformers, which sprang up in 
Bohemia about 1467; in 1535 
they united with the Lutherans 
and afterwards with the Zuin- 
glians. 

HONOSIANS, a branch of 
thePhotiniatts, who followed the 
opinions of Bonosus, bishop of 
Sardica. See Photinians, 

KOKItELISTS, so named 



• Mosheim, vol. i. p. 248. f Buck's Thcol. Diet. 

* Pinkerton'a Greet Church, p. 305. 

§ L ew of the Unitarian Doctrine and Worship, p. 289. 

3 Symes' Embassy to Ava. ^ Mosheim, vol. ii. p« 444. 



BOU 4; 

from their leader, Adam Borrel, 
of Zealand, a learned man, a- 
bout the time of the Reforma- 
tion, who is charged with un- 
dervaluing the Church, [i. e. of 
Rome,] its priests, and services. 
He asserted that all Christian 
churches had degenerated from 
the pure apostolic doctrines. 
His followers lead a very aus- 
tere life, and employ a great 
part of their goods in alms and 
works of piety.* 

BQURIGNONXSTS, a de- 
nomination in the seventeenth 
century, which sprang from the 
famous Antoinette Bourignon 
de la Ponte, a native of Flan- 
ders, who pretended to be divine- 
ly inspired, and set apart to re- 
vive the true spirit of Christian- 
ity that had been extinguished 
by theological animosities and 
debates. The leading princi- 
ples which run through her pro- 
ductions are as follow : — That 
man is perfectly free to resist 
or receive divine grace. That 
God is ever unchangeable love 
towards all his creatures, and 
does not inflict any arbitrary 
punishment ; but that the evils 
they suffer are the natural con- 
sequences of sin. That true 
religion consists not in any out- 
ward forms of worship, nor 
systems of faith j but in an en- 
tire resignation 0? the will to 
God.f 

This lady was educated in 
the Roman Catholic religion ; 
but she declaimed equally a- 



v 
BRE 

gainst the corruptions of the 
church of Rome and those of the 
reformed churches : hence she 
was opposed and persecuted by 
both catholics and protestants. 
She maintained that there 
ought to be a toleration of all 
religions. 

Those who are desirous of 
seeing a particular account of 
the life and writings of this la- 
dy, may consult an abridgment 
of the « Light of the World," 
published in 1786, by the New 
Jerusalem church. 

*BRAMINS, (formerly call- 
ed Brachmans,) the Priests of 
Brachma, the supreme God of 
the Hindoos, which see. 

^BRAZILIANS. The na- 
tives of Brazil were so much 
terrified by thunder, that it was 
not only the object of religious 
reverence, but the most ex- 
pressive name in their lan- 
guage ; for the Deity was call- 
ed Toupan, the thunderer. 

BRETHREN & SISTERS 

OF THE FREE SPIRIT. They, 

about the thirteenth century, 
gained ground imperceptibly in 
Italy, France, and Germany. 
They took their denomination 
from the words of Paul, (Rom. 
viii. 2 — 14.) and maintained 
that the true children of God 
were invested with the privi- 
lege of a full and perfect free- 
dom from the jurisdiction of 
the law. They were called by 
the Germans and Flemish, Beg- 
hards and Beguttes, names giv- 



* Broughton, vol. i. p. 170. 

t Dufresnoy's Chronological Tables, vol. ii. p. 253. Mosheim, vol. v. p. 64. 
Light of the World, p. 27-^430. Mad. Bourjgnon's Letters. 



BltO 

en to those who made ao extra- 
ordinary profession of piety and 
devotion. 

The sentiments taught by 
this denomination were as fol- 
low : — That all things flowed 
by emanation from God, and 
were finally to return to their 
divine source : — That every 
man, by the power of contem- 
plation, might be united to the 
Deity in an ineffable manner j 
and that they who, by long and 
assiduous meditation had plung- 
ed themselves, as it were, into 
the abyss of the divinity, ac- 
quired thereby a most glorious 
and sublime liberty ; and were 
not only delivered from the vi- 
olence of sinful lusts, but even 
from the common instincts of 
nature. 

They treated with contempt 
every external act of religious 
worship ; looking upon prayer, 
and the sacraments as the ele- 
ments of piety, adapted to the 
capacity of children, and as un- 
tssary to the perfect man, 
whom long meditation had rais- 
ed into the bosom and essence 
of the Deity.* 

•BRETHREN & CLERKS 
of Tin; common Lira, a fro.ter- 
nit% of tbt order of si. Augus- 
tine, who are commended for 
promoting the cause of religion 
and learning, about the time of 
the reformation.'! 

BROWN1STS, the name 
given for some time to those 



48 



BUG 






who were afterwards known in 
England and Holland under the 
denomination of Independents. 
It arose from a Mr. Rohert 
Brown, who about 1590 was a 
teacher amongst them in Eng- 
land, and at Middleburg, in 
Zealand. He was a man of 
education, zeal, and abilities. 
The separation, however, does 
not appear to have originated 
in him : for by several publica- 
tions of those times, it is clear 
that these sentiments had, be- 
fore his day, been embraced, 
and professed in England, and 
churches gathered on the plan 
of them. Nor did the sect call 
themselves Brownists ; but con- 
sidered it rather as a nick-name 
given them by their adversa- 
ries.^: 

This denomination did not 
differ in point of doctrine from 
the church of England, or from 
the other puritans ; but they 
apprehended that, according to 
scripture, every church ought 
to be confined within the limits 
of a single congregation, wd 
have the complete power of ju- 
risdiction over its members, to 
be exercised by the elders with- 
in itself, without being subject 
to the authority of bishops, sy- 
nods, presbyteries, or any ec- 
clesiastical assembly, composed 
of the deputies from different 
churches. Sec Independents. 

I CHANITES, a Sen in 
Scotland which arose about 



♦ M »heirn, vol. iii. p. 12 f Ibid. 

{ Examination of Bam .lion, p. 15: 

ford's !'la tion, p. I, 2. \Uo Nciil's Pi 






CAB 



49 



CAB 



1783. They believed in a Mrs. 
Buchan of Glasgow, who gave 
herself out to be the Woman 
spoken of in the Apocalypse, 
and promised to conduct her 
followers to heaven without dy- 
ing : but she died soon after, 
and with her the sect ended.* 

BUDNEIANS, a branch of 
the Socinians, which appeared 
in the year 1589, and maintain- 
ed that Christ was not begotten 
by any extraordinary act of 
divine power ; but that he was 
born like other men in a natur- 
al way, and not a proper object 
of divine worship, f See Socin- 
ians. 

BUD SO, a form of Pagan 
worship, introduced into Japan, 



from China and Siam. Its au- 
thor is supposed to have been 
Budha, whom the Indian bra- 
mins conceive to be their god 
Vishnu, who, they say, made 
his ninth appearance in the 
world, under the form of a man, 
so natjied. See Hindoos. 

^BURGHERS, a numerous 
and respectable class of sece- 
ders, from the church of Scot- 
land, originally connected with 
the Associate Presbytery ; but 
some difference arising aboutthe 
lawfulness of the Burgess oath, 
a separation took place in 1739, 
and those who refused the oath, 
were called Antiburgers.^ See 
Seceders. 



C ABB ALISTS, certain doc- 
tors among the Jews, who pre- 
tend to derive from tradition 
an acromatic or secret science, 
called the Cabbala. This sci- 
ence is divided into three sorts. 
By the first kind, the Jews ex- 
tract recondite meanings from 
the words of scripture. The 
second is a kind of magic, in 
employing the words and let- 
ters of scripture in certain com- 
binations, which they suppose 
have power over the good and 
evil spirits of the invisible 
world familiar with them. The 



third, which is properly tli£ 
Cabbala, is an art, by which 
they profess to raise mysteri- 
ous expositions of the scrip- 
tures upon the letters of the 
sentences, to which they apply 
them. 

The cabbalists suppose ev- 
ery letter, point, or accent of 
the law to contain some hidden 
mystery, which was revealed 
to Moses on Mount Sinai, but 
not written, (whence it is called 
the oral law,) but handed down 
by tradition among these mys- 
tic doctors.:}: 



* Scotch Theolog. Diet. 
v Butler's Hor?e Biblicre. 



f Mosheini, vol. iv. p» 199, 



CAL 



50 



CAL 



It is said, tbat the cabbalistic 
mysteries are at present despis- 
ed by the more intelligent part 
of the Jewish nation. 

C AINIANS, a denomination 
which sprang* up about the 
year 130, so called on account 
of their great respect for Cain. 
They pretend that the virtue 
which had produced Abel was 
of an order inferiour to that 
which had produced Cain ; and 
that this w as the reason why 
Cain had the victory over Abel 
and killed him. 

The morals of this denomi- 
nation were said to be very de- 
fective.^ 

CALIXTIN8, a branch of 
the Hussites, in Bohemia and 
Moravia, in the fifteenth centu- 
ry. The principal point in which 
they differed from the church of 
Rome, was the use of the chal- 
ice, (calix,) or communicating 
in both kinds. Calixtins was 
also a name given to those a- 
mong the Lutherans, who fol- 
lowed the opinions of George 
Calixtus, a celebrated divine 
in the seventeenth century, who 
endeavoured to unite the Rom- 
ish, Lutheran, and Calvinistic 
churches in the bonds of chari- 
ty and mutual benevolence, tak- 
ing the apostle's creed as his 
foundation of unioii 

CALVINISTS. Theyderive 
their nana 4 from John Calvin, 
who was born at Nbgen, in Pi- 
cardy, in 1509. He first studi- 
ed the civil law. and was after- 
wards made professor of divin- 



ity at Geneva, in the year 1536. 
His genius, learning, eloquence* 
and piety rendered him respect- 
able even in the eyes of his en- 
emies. 

The name of Calvinists w r as 
first given to those who em- 
braced not merely the doctrine, 
but the church-establishment 
and discipline established at 
Geneva, and to distinguish them 
from the Lutherans. But since 
the meeting of the Synod of 
Dort, the name has been chiefly 
applied to those who embrace 
Calvin's leading views of the 
gospel, to distinguish them from 
the Arminians. 

The leading principles by 
which Calvinists are distin- 
guished from Arminians, are 
reduced to five articles, and 
which from their being the prin- 
cipal points discussed at the 
Synod of Dort, have since been 
denominated thejtve points. 

These are predestination, par- 
ticular redemption, total deprav- 
ity, effectual calling, and the 
certain perseverance of the saints. 

The following statement com- 
prises the principal tenets of 
the Calvinists, to which are 
added a few of the arguments 
they allege in defence of their 
sentiments. 

I. That God has chosen a 
certain number of the ftillen 
race of Adam in Christ, before 
the foundation of the world* 
unto eternal glory, according 
to his immutable purpose, and 
of his free grace and love, with- 



Ency. Brit. f Broughton, vol i. p. 192. Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 450, 451. 



CAL 



51 



CAL 



out the foresight of faith, good 
works, or any conditions per- 
formed hy the creature, as the 
cause of his election ; and that 
the rest of mankind he was 
pleased to pass hy, and ordain 
them to dishonour and wrath 
for their sins, to the praise of 
his glorious justice.^ 

For, as the Deity is infinite- 
ly perfect and independent in 
all his acts, the manifestation 
of his essential perfections must 
be the supreme end of the divine 
counsels and designs. Prov. xvi. 
4. The Lord has made all things 
for himself, &c. Since God is 
omniscient, it is evident that he 
foresaw from eternity what- 
ever should come to pass ; but 
there can be no prescience of 
future contingents ; for what is 
certainly foreseen, must infal- 
libly come to pass ; consequent- 
ly the prescience of the Deity 
must be antecedent to his de- 
crees. 

The sacred scriptures assert 
the divine sovereignty in the 
clearest terms. Rom. ix. 21. 
Hath not the potter power over 
the day of the same lump, to make 
one vessel unto honour, and an- 
other to dishonour? See from 
verse eleventh to the end of the 
chapter, and also Rom. viii. 3C ; 
xi. 5, 7. Eph. i. 4. Acts xiii. 48, 
&c. 

II. That Jesus Christ, by his 
death and sufferings, made an 
atonement for the sins of the 
elect only. 

The advocates for particular 

* The most prominent, feature of th 
reprobation of others, from all eternity, 
f Acta Synodi,6ess. 136, p. 259. 



redemption admit that the death 
of Christ is sufficient to expiate 
the sins of the whole world; 
yet, say they, it was the will of 
God, that Christ by the blood 
of the cross, should efficacious- 
ly redeem those only who were 
from eternity elected to salva- 
tion, and given to him by the 
Father.f 

For, there are express texts 
of scripture which testify that 
Christ did not die for all men. 
See John vi. 37. Ml that the Fa- 
ther giveth me shall come to me, 
&c. And in John x. 11, our 
Lord styles himself the good 
Shepherd, who lays down his 
life for his sheep. See also John 
xvii. 9. 

III. That mankind are to- 
tally depraved, in consequence 
of the fall of the first man, who 
being their public head, his sin 
involved the corruption of all 
his posterity ; and this corrup- 
tion extends over the whole soul, 
and renders it unable of itself 
to turn to God, or to do any 
thing truly good ; and exposes 
it to his just displeasure, both 
in this world and that which is 
to come. 

For the inspired pages as- 
sert the original depravity of 
mankind, in the most emphat- 
ic al terms. Gen. viii. 21. The 
imagination of man's h r art is 
evil from his youth. Psalm xiv. 
2, 3. The Lord looked down from 
heaven upon the children of men, 
to see if there were any that did 
understand and seek after God. 

is system is, the electron of some, and 



CAL 



52 



CAL 



They are all gone aside, they are 
altogether become jilthy; there 
is none that doeth good, no not 
one. To the same purport see 
Rom. iii. 10, 11, 12, &e. And 
it is evident, that Adam's sin 
was imputed to his posterity, 
from Rom. v. 19. By one man 9 * 
disobedience many were made 
sinners, &c. The scriptures al- 
so teach, that all sin exposes 
ns to everlasting destruction. 
See Gal. iii. 10. 2 Cor. iii. 6, 7. 
and Rom. v. 14. 

The total depravity of human 
nature is also evident from the 
universal reign of death over 
persons of all ages and in all 
times ; — from the propensity to 
evil, which appears in mankind, 
and impels them to transgress 
God's law ; — from the necessity 
of regeneration; — the nature of 
redemption; — and the remains 
of corruption in the saints. 

IV. That all whom God hath 
predestinated unto life, he is 
pleased in his appointed time 
effectually to call by his word 
and Spirit, out of that state of 
sin and death in which they are 
by nature, to grace and salvation 
by Jesus Christ. 

In proof of this doctrine* the , 

Calvinists allege, among others, 

the following scripture passa- 

. U '/mm he did predestinate, 

them he also tolled, frc. That 

may know what is lite ex~ 
his power to 

us-ward who believes according 
to the wdrktoig nf Jiis mighty 
jimcer, <$-r. For we ate 
workmanship, created in Ci< 



Jesus unto good works. See 
Rom. viii. 30. Ephes. i. 1 9, 20 ; 
ii. 9, 10. 2 Cor. iv. 6. 

If there were any thing in 
us which renders the grace of 
God effectual, we should have 
cause for boasting ; but the a- 
postlc emphatically says, Where 
is boasting? It is excluded. 
Rom. iii. 27. 

V. That those whom God has 
effectually called and sanctified 
by his spirit, shall never final- 
ly fall from a state of grace. 

For, say they, this doctrine 
is evident from the promises of 
persevering grace in the sacred 
scriptures. I will put my fear 
in their hearts, and they shall not 
depart from me. This is the Fa- 
ther's will, that of all he hath 
giwn mc, I should lose nothing. 
And the apostle exclaims with 
triumphant rapture, J am per- 
suaded that neither life, nor death, 
S(e. shall be able to separate ns 
from the lore of God, which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

Such were the doctrines of 
the first Calvinists, and such, 
in substance, are those of the 
present time. In this howev- 
er, as in every other denomi- 
nation, there are considerable 
shades of difference. 

Some think Calvin, though 
right in the main, yvt carried 
things too far : these are com- 
monly known by the name of 
Moderate Calvinists. Others 
think he did not go far enough ; 
and these are known by the 
name of nigh Calvinists; by 
many called Antinomians. 



CAM 



53 



CAP 



It is proper to add, that the 
Calvinistic system includes in 
it the doctrine of a Trinity.* 

Atonement,! and justifica- 
tion by faith alone, or by the im- 
puted righteousness of Christ4 
For a more copious elucidation 
of these sentiments, see the 
articles Hopkinsians 9 Predesiina- 
rians, and Necessarians. 

CAMERONIANS, a party 
in Scotland, who took their de- 
nomination from Richard Ca- 
meron, a famous field preacher, 
who refused to accept the in- 
dulgence to tender consciences 
granted by Charles II. as such 
an acceptance seemed an ac- 
knowledgment of the king's su- 
premacy, and that he had be- 
fore a right to silence them. 
Cameron made a separation 
from his Presbyterian brethren, 
in 1666, and afterwards headed 
a rebellion, in which he was 
kilied. His party were never 
entirely reduced till the revolu- 
tion, when they voluntarily sub- 
mitted to King William.§ 



CAMERONIANS, (or Car 

meronites,) is also the denomi- 
nation of a party of moderate 
Calvinists in France, who as- 
serted that God does not move 
the will physically, but only 
morally, in virtue of its depend- 
ancc on the judgment of the 
mind. They derived this name 
from John Cameron, a famous 
professor, first at Glasgow, 
where he was born in 1530, and 
afterwards at Bordeaux and 
Saumur ; at which last place he 
promulgated his doctrine of 
grace and free will, which was 
followed by Amyraut, Cappel, 
Bochart, Daille, and other 
learned reformed ministers, who 
judged Calvin's doctrines on 
these points too harsh. || 

CAMISARS. See French 
Prophets. 

CAPUTIATI, a sect in the 
twelfth century ; so called from 
wearing a singular kind of cap 
with a leaden image of the Vir- 
gin Mary. They declared 
publicly, that their purpose was 



* Both the Calvinists and Arminians, who formed the Synod of Dort, were 
however on the article of the Trinity generally agreed. 

f This is observed by Mr. Evans, in his Sketch of Denominations, &c. who 
states the Calvinistic doctrine of atonement to be, that " Christ, by his death, 
made satisfaction to divine justice for the elect, appeasing the anger of the 
Divine Being, and effecting, on his part, a reconciliation." This doctrine, 
however, he says, is reprobated by some of their divines; and he instances in 
the writing of Dr. Magee on the Atonement and Mr. Fuller, the latter of 
whom observes, " If we say, a way was opened by the death of Christ, for the 
free and consistent exercise of mercy in all the methods which sovereign wis- 
dom saw fit to adopt, perhaps we shall include every material idea, which the 
scripture gives us of that important event." See Fuller on Deism. See also 
Fuller's Calvinistic and Socinian Systems Compared. 

* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. iii. p. 352 ; vol. iv. p. 70. Calvin's Institutes, 
p. 127. Assembly's Confession of Faith, p. 35, 36, &c. Charnock's Works, 
vol. ii. p. 1352. Twisse's Works, p. 225. Dr. Edwards' Veritas Reduc. p. 56, 
89, &c. Edwards on Original Sin, p. 18—40, Sec. Toplady's Works. 

§ Scotch Theol. Diet. ' Encvclopxdi:;, vol. iv. p. 61. 



CER 



54 



CER 



to level all distinctions among 
mankind, and to restore their 
natural equality.* 

CAROLOSTADIANS, fol- 
lowers of Carolostadt, a col- 
league of Luther. He denied 
the real presence in the eucha- 
rist, and declaimed against hu- 
man lcarning.f 

CARPOCRATIANS, a de- 
nomination which arose to- 
wards the middle of the second 
century ; so called from Car- 
pocrates, whose philosophical 
tenets agreed in general with 
those of the Egyptian Gnos- 
tics ; hut lie is charged with li- 
centious principles and con- 
duct.:): See Gnostics. 

CATAPHRYGIANS. See 
Montunists. 

^CATECHUMENS, the 
lowest order of Christians in 
the primitive church, being such 
as were under Catechetical In- 
struction previous to Baptism. \ 

CATHARISTS, a branch of 
thePaulicians in the twelfth cen- 
tury, of very austere manners. 
See Patdicians. 

CATHOLICS. See Roman 
Catholics, 

tCELTES,(orCEMJB,)one 

oHIiiMuinntivc nations, hy which 

most parts of Europe were 

peopled. The Druids were 
their pries te and judges. Their 
Religion was pure Paganism 
without images, hut they wor- 
shipped in consecrated groves.$ 
Bee Druids and Pagans, 

CERDONIANS, followers 
ofCerdoj a branch of the Gnos- 



tics in the second century , which 
were also called Marcimites. 

CERINTHIANS, a denomi- 
nation which arose in thejirst 
century ; so called from Cerin- 
thus, who taught that the crea- 
tor of the world, whom he con- 
sidered also as the sovereign of 
the Jews, was a heing endowed 
with the greatest virtues, and 
derived his birth from the su- 
preme God — that this heing fell 
by degrees from his primitive 
dignity — that the supreme God, 
in consequence, determined to 
destroy his empire, and sent for 
this purpose one of the glorious 
atom, whose name was Christ — 
that Christ chose for his habita- 
tion the person of Jesus, the son 
of Joseph and Mary ; and de- 
scending in the form of a dove, 
entered into him while lie was 
receiving the baptism of John — 
that Jesus, after his union with 
Christ, opposed himself to the 
god of the Jews, and was by his 
instigation seized and crucified 
— that when Jesus was taken 
captive, Christ ascended up on 
high, so that the man Jesus alone 
was subjected to the pains of an 
ignominious death. 

Cerinthus required of his fol- 
lowers, that they should wor- 
ship the supreme (iod, in con- 
junction with the Son ; that 
they should abandon the God of 
the .leas, whom he looked up- 
on as the creator of theworla; 
that they should retain apart of 
the law given by Moses, but em- 
ploy their principal attention 



• Mosbeim, vol ii. p. 456, 457. f IMd. vol. it, p. 28, 30. 
| Ibid. TOi i. p. 184! 185. § Ency. Perth. 



CHI 



55 



CHI 



and care to regulate their lives 
by the precepts of Christ. To 
encourage them to this, he 
promised them the resurrection 
of this mortal body, after which 
was to commence a scene of the 
most exquisite delights during 
Christ's earthly reign of a thou- 
sand years, which was to be 
succeeded by a happy and nev- 
er-ending life in the celestial 
world.* See Gnostics. 

CHAZINZ ARIANS, that is, 
worshippers of the cross, a sect 
which arose in the seventh cen- 
tury in Armenia.f 

CHILIASTS. See Milieu- 
arians. 

CHINESE. The religion 
of this great and ancient na- 
tion was certainly patriarchal, 
and supposed to be derived from 
Joktan, the brother of Peleg. 
(Gen. x. 29, 30.) This has de- 
generated to Paganism, which 
among their literati may be re- 
fined to a sort of philosophical 
atheism ; but among the vulgar 
is as gross idolatry as that of 
other heathen nations. The 
grand Lama, or Pope of the 
Chinese and Tartars, who re- 
sides at Thibet in Tartary, is 
their visible deity, and treated 
with more distinction than the 
Pope himself, in the zenith of 
his power and glory, and at- 
tended by 20,000 priests or la- 
mas. In addition to this gener- 
al system of religion, which is 
founded on their sacred books, 
said to have descended from the 
skies, there arc three grand 
sects, of which we shall give a 



brief account ; and those three 
are again subdivided into as ma- 
ny as the Christian world itself. 

1. The sect of Tao-se, or the 
followers of fMokium, who lived, 
as they pretend, 500 years be- 
fore Christ, and taught that 
God was corporeal. They pay 
divine honours to this philoso- 
pher, and give the same wor- 
ship, not only to many empe- 
rours who have been ranked 
with the gods, but also to certain 
spirits, under the name of %am- 
te, who preside over all the ele- 
ments. Their morality con- 
sists in calming the passions, and 
disengaging themselves from 
every thing which tends to dis- 
quiet the soul, to live free from 
care, to forget the past, and not 
be apprehensive for the future. 
There are also magicians,*— 
some of whom pretend that they 
derive from their founder the se- 
cret of making an elixir, which 
confersjmmortality. 

2. The most predominant 
sect is that of Foe, who (accord- 
ing to their chronology) flour- 
ished 1000 years before our 
Saviour, and who became a 
god at the age of 30 years. 
This religion was transmitted 
from India to China 65 years 
after the birth of Christ. A 
large number of temples, or 
pagodas, are reared to this dei- 
ty, some of which are highly 
magnificent, and a number of 
bonzes, or priests, consecrated 
to his service. He is repre- 
sented shining in light, with his 
hands hid under his robes, to 



* Moshcim, vol. i. p. 117. 118. j- History of Re%ion, vol-, iv. 



CHI 



56 



CHI 



show that he does all things in- 
visibly. The doctors of this 
sect teach a double doctrine, the 
one external, the other internal. 
According to the former they 
say, all the good are recom- 
pensed, and the wicked punish- 
ed, in places destined for each. 
They enjoin all works of mer- 
cy and charity ; and forbid 
cheating, impurity, wine, lying, 
and murder ; and even the tak- 
ing of life from any creature 
whatever. For they helieve 
that the souls of their ancestors 
transmigrate into irrational 
creatures; either into such as 
they liked best, or resembled 
most, in their behaviour; for 
which reason they never kill 
any such animals.^ 

They build temples for £oc, 
and monasteries for his priests, 
providing for their mainte- 
nance, as the most effectual 
means to partake of their pray- 
ers. These priests pretend to 
know into what bodies the dead 
1 Transmigrated ; and seldom 
fail of representing their case 
to the surviving friends as mis- 
erable or uncomfortable, that 
they may extort money from 
them to procure the deceased a 
sage into a better state, or 
pray them out of purgatory, 
which forms a part or their sys- 
u m.| 

The ii doctrine of this 

. will h !s kept secret from 

common people, teaches a 

philosophical atheism, which ad- 



mits neither rewards nor pun- 
ishments after death ; and be- 
lieves not in a providence, or 
the immortality of the soul j ac- 
knowledges no other god than 
the void, or nothing ; and makes 
the supreme happiness of man- 
kind to consist in a total inac- 
tion, an entire insensibility, and a 
perfect quietude.^ 

3. A sect which acknowledg- 
es for its master the philosopher 
Confucius, (or Kung-fut-si,J who 
lived about 500 years before our 
Saviour. This religion, which 
is professed by the literati, and 
persons of rank in China and 
Tonquin, consists in a deep in- 
ward veneration for the God, or 
King of Heaven, and in the 
practice of every moral virtue. 
They have neither temples nor 
priests, nor any settled form of 
external worship : every one 
adores the Supreme Being in 
the way he likes best.§ 

Confucius, like Socrates, did 
not dive into abstruse notions, 
but confined himself to speak 
with the deepest regard of the 
great Author of all beings, whom 
he represents as the most pure 
and perfect essence and fountain 
of all things ; to inspire men 
with greater fear, veneration, 
gratitude, and love of him ; to 
rt his divine providence 
creatures : and to 
repre a being of such 

infinite knowledge, that even 
our mosl secrel thoughts are not 
bidden from him: and of such 



to China, vol. i p. 
■j- Modern I tiiversal IF! vlii. p. \\2— 1 I 

ol< ii« p. K p. 230. 



CHI 



57 



CHR 



boundless goodness and justice, 
that he can let no virtue go un- 
rewarded, or vice unpunished. 

Mr. Maurice, the author of 
Indian Antiquities, asserts, that 
Confucius strictly forbade all 
images of the Deity, and the de- 
ification of dead men ; and that 
in his dying moments he encour- 
aged his disciples, by predicting 
that in tlie west the Holy One 
would appear ! 

The Chinese honour their 
dead ancestors, burn perfumes 
before their images, bow before 
their pictures, and invoke them 
as capable of bestowing all tem- 
poral blessings.^ 

It is remarked, that « None of 
the different systems of reli- 
gion," above mentioned, " can 
be said to be the prevailing 
creed in China; or what is 
more remarkable, can be found 
existing pure and distinct from 
the rest. The greater part of 
the Chinese have no decided 
opinion whatever on the subject, 
and are either complete athe- 
ists, or, if they acknowledge a 
Supreme Being, utterly igno- 
rant in what view he ought to 
be regarded ; while they all 



combine with their peculiar sen- 
timents the multifarious super- 
stitions of the more popular 
sects. Of all these tolerated 
and established religious per- 
suasions the emperour is the su- 
preme head; without whose per- 
mission not one of them can en- 
joy a single privilege or point 
of pre-eminence ; and who can 
diminish or increase, at his 
pleasure, the number of their re- 
spective temples or priests."! 

CHRISTIANS. The disci- 
ples and followers of Jesus 
Christ were first called Chris- 
tians at Antioch4 A. D. 42. 
They were eminently distin- 
guished by the sublime virtues 
which adorned their lives, and 
the miraculous gifts and graces 
bestowed by God upon them. 

The history of our Saviour, 
as recorded in the New Testa- 
ment, forms the basis of the 
Christian system, and as this 
book is happily in the hands of 
all our readers, it is unnecessary 
to enter into particulars. 

The evidences of the Chris- 
tian religion are comprised un- 
der historical testimony ,§ pro- 
phecies, miracles, the internal 



* Maurice's Ind. Antlq. vol. v. p. 468. 

f American edition of the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, vol.vi. part I. p. 91. 

* Acts xi. 26. Antioch seems to have been a kind of head quarters to the 
Christians, and from hence they sent missionaries in various directions. See 
Calmet's Dictionary, vol. v. 

§ See an excellent defence of the truth of the Christian revelation in the ar- 
ticle Christianity , in the Edinburgh Encyclopaedia. It is chiefly confined to the 
exposition of the historical argument for the truth of Christianity ; and the aim 
of the author is to prove the external testimony to be so sufficient, as to leave 
infidelity without excuse, even though the remaining important branches of 
the Christian defence had been less strong and satisfactory than they are This 
able workwas written by the Rev. Thomas Chalmers,!) D. # qf Glasgow, Scot- 
land. It has been published in a duodecimo volume at Philadelphia and at 
Hartford. The compiler of this work is much gratified to hear that its success 
has been proportionate to its merits. 

8 



CHR 



58 



CHR 



evidence of its doctrines and 
precepts, and the rapidity of its 
first propagation among the 
Jews and Gentiles. Though 
thinking Christians have in eve- 
ry age differed widely respect- 
ing some of the doctrines of this 
religion, yet they are fully a- 
greed in the divinity of its ori- 
gin, and the henevolence of its 
tendency.* 

CHRISTIANS OF ST. 
JOHN, so called because they 
pretend to have received their 
faith and traditions from John 
the Baptist. They always in- 
habit near a river, in which 
they baptize ; for they never bap- 
tize but in rivers, and only on 
Lord's days. Before they go 
to the river, they carry the in- 
fant to church, where there is a 
bishop, who reads certain pray- 
ers over the head of the child ; 
thence they carry the child to 
the river, with a train of men 
and women, who, together with 
the bishop, go up to the knees 
in water. Then the bishop reads 
again certain prayers out of a 
hook ; which done, he sprinkles 
the infant three times, saying, 
In the name of the Lord, first 
and last of the world and para- 
disc, the high Creator of aU things. 
After this the bishop reads again 
in his book, while, the godfa- 
ther plunges the child a!l over 
in the water; after which they 
all go to the parent's hone to 
feast. They have no knowl- 
edge of the doctrine of the trin- 
ity ; only they say that Christ 



is the Spirit and Word of the 
eternal Father. They confess 
that he became man to free us 
from the punishment of sin : but 
when the Jews came to take him, 
he eluded their cruelty with a 
shadow. 

They have no canonical 
books, but a number full of 
charms and traditions. Their 
chief festivals arc three : one 
in memory of the creation ; an- 
other on the feast of St. John; 
and the third, which lasts five 
days, in June, during which 
time they arc all rebaptized.f 

CHRISTIANS OF ST. 
THOMAS, a denomination in 
the peninsula of India, so called 
because they have a peculiar 
veneration for that apostle, who 
preached the gospel and suffered 
martyrdom, as is said, in that 
peninsula. See Syrian Church- 
es* 

CHRISTO SACRUM, a so- 
ciety founded in 1801, at Delft, 
by Under de Wingaard, an old 
Burgomaster of that city, an 
intelligent man, privately insti- 
gated, it is said, by the Menno- 
nites, enemies of the reformed. 
Thongh there are found among 
them disciples of Calvin and 
Luther, the Mennonitcs are. 
however, the most numerous. 
The members of this assembly 
repeat incessantly that they are 
not a sert, but a society, whost 
object is to unite all religions. 

They admit whoever believes in 

the dh inity of Jesus Christ, 
and in the redemption of man* 



* Evans' Sketch of fteligious Denominate 
t Tavinier's Travels, p. 90, ( 



CIR 



59 



coc 



kind by the merits of the pas- 
sion of the Saviour. The soci- 
ety began with four members, 
and immediately increased to 
two or three thousand ; as yet 
they have no public worship ex- 
cept at Delft. Their temple is 
ornamented with some elegance; 
three seats and as many pulpits, 
which rise gradually, are de- 
signed for those who read, who 
chant, and who preach. 

The worship is divided into 
two pails ; — adoration and in- 
struction. The first takes place 
every Sunday towards five or 
six o'clock in the evening ; they 
set forth especially the greatness 
of God as manifested in the 
wonders of creation. The in- 
struction takes place once a 
fortnight, also in the evening ; 
when the principles of revealed 
religion are developed. The 
Lord's supper is celebrated six 
times in a year ; the assembly 
are prostrated during the pray- 
er and blessing. 

The society has published 
some small pieces, of which the 
first presents in the frontispiece 
the emblem which it has adopt- 
ed ; it is a cross placed on the 
gospel and decalogue, and ap- 
plied to a crown of palm, in 
which is inscribed in Dutch 
these words of Jesus Christ ; / 
am the way, the truth and the life; 
no one can come to the Father but 
by me.* 

*CHURCH of ENGLAND. 
See English Church. 

CIRCUMCELLIANS, (in 
Latin Circumcelliones,J a branch 



of the Donatists. They abound- 
ed chiefly in Africa. They had 
no fixed abode ; but rambled a- 
bout begging, or rather exact- 
ing a maintenance from the 
country people, f 

COCCE1ANS, a denomina- 
tion of the seventeenth century ; 
so called from John Cocceius, 
professor of divinity in the uni- 
versity of Leyden. He repre- 
sented the whole history of the 
Old Testament as a mirror, 
which held forth an accurate 
view of the transactions and e- 
vents that were to happen in the 
church under the dispensation 
of the New Testament, and un- 
to the end of the world. He 
maintained that by far the great- 
est part of the ancient prophe- 
cies foretold Christ's ministry 
and mediation, and the rise, 
progress, and revolutions of the 
church ; not only under the fig- 
ure of persons and transactions, 
but in a literal and direct man- 
ner : and that Christ was the 
substance of the Old Testament 
as well as of the New. 

Cocceius also taught, that 
the covenant made between God 
and the Jews was of the same 
nature as the new covenant by 
Jesus Christ : that the law was 
promulgated by Moses, not 
merely as a rule of obedience, 
but also as a representation of 
the covenant of grace : that 
when the Jews had provoked 
the Deity by their various trans- 
gressions, (particularly by the 
worship of the golden calf,) the 
severe yoke of the ceremonial 



* Gregorie's History of Religious Sects, vol. i. 
f Brought™, vol i. p. 249. 



COL 



60 



CON 



law was added as a punishment : 
that this yoke, which was pain- 
ful in itself, became doubly so 
on account of its typical signifi- 
cation ; since it admonished the 
Israelites from day to day of 
the imperfection of their state, 
filled them with anxiety, and 
was a perpetual proof that they 
had merited the righteous judg- 
ment of God, and could not ex- 
pect, before the coming of the 
Messiah, the entire remission 
of their iniquities : that indeed 
good men, under the Mosaic dis- 
pensation, were after death made 
partakers of glory ; but that, 
nevertheless, during the whole 
course of their lives they were 
far removed from that assur- 
ance of salvation, which rejoic- 
es the believer under the dispen- 
sation of the gospel ; and that 
their anxiety flowed from this 
consideration, that their sins, 
though they remain unpunish- 
ed, were not yet pardoned, be- 
cause Christ had not as yet of- 
fered himself up to make an a- 
toncment for them. * See Hutch- 
wnians, 

COLARBARSIANS. Sec 
Marcosio 

COLLEGIATES, a name 
given to a society ofMennonites 
in Holland, because they railed 
their religious assemblies rollc- 

-. Thej are also called Rhin- 
stergers.-| See Mennonites. 

COLLUTHIANS, followers 
of Colluthus, a priest of Alex- 
andria who is said to hayetaught 
that God was not t ho author of 



the evils and afflictions of this 
life4 

COLLYLYR1DIANS, an 
Arabian sect in the fourth cen- 
tury ; who idolized the Virgin 
Mary as a goddess, offering to 
her little cakes.§ 
CONGREGATIONALISTS, 
a denomination of protectants, 
who maintain that each partic- 
ular church has authority from 
Christ for exercising govern- 
ment, and enjoying all the or- 
dinances of worship within it- 
self. 

The platform of church dis- 
cipline which was drawn up in 
1648, and agreed upon by the 
elders and messengers of the 
churches, assembled in the sy- 
nod at Cambridge, in New 
England, defines a congrega- 
tional church to be, by the in- 
stitution of Christ, a part of the 
militant visible church, consist- 
ing of a company of saints by 
calling, united in one body by a 
holy covenant, for the public 
worship of God, and the mutual 
edification of one another in the 
fellowship of the Lord Jesus. 

According to this platform, 
such /is are admitted members 
of churches ought to be first ex- 
amined : for the eunuch of Ethio- 
pia, before his admission, was 
examined by Philip, whether he 
did believe in Jesus Christ, with 
all his heart. 

The qualifications necessary 
to be found in nil church mem- 
bers, arc repentance from sin, 
and faith in Jesus Christ. This 



• Motheim, vol. iv. p. 545 — 54-8. 

■!. vol. v. p. 59. Collier's Historical Dictionary* 

\ Broughton, vol. i. p. 264. § History of Religion, vol. iv# 



COP 



61 



CRI 



denomination differed original- 
ly from the Independents in this 
respect, that they invited coun- 
cils, which are to advise only ; 
but the Independents formerly 
decided all difficulties within 
themselves. They are now, 
however, considered as one 
denomination. ^ See Indepen- 
dents* 

CONONITES, the followers 
of Conon, Bishop of Tarsus, in 
the sixth century ; who taught 
that the body never lost its es- 
sential form j that its matter 
alone was subject to corruption 
and decay, and was to be re- 
stored when this mortal shall 
put on immortality.f 
*CONSUBSTA]NTIALISTS, 
who believed the doctrine of 
consubstantiation, namely, that 
the real body of Christ is pre- 
sent with the bread and wine, 
instead of their being convert- 
ed into it by transubstantia- 
tion. The term consubstantial 
^OfjLoxcrios) was also used in the 
Arian controversy to distin- 
guish the Athanasians. See Lu- 
therans, and Jrians. 

COPHTS, a numerous de- 
nomination of Christians in 
Egypt, Syria, Nubia, and the 
adjacent countries. They are 
subject to the patriarch of Alex- 
andria, who is said to have no 
less than 140 bishoprics in those 
parts subject to him, besides the 
bishop of the Abyssinians, who 
is nominated and consecrated 



by him. The patriarch makes 
a short discourse to the priests 
once a year ; and the latter read 
legends from the pulpit on 
great festivals, but never preach. 
Their church service is per- 
formed in Arabic, and modern 
Coptic. They followed the doc- 
trine of the Jacobites with re- 
gard to the nature of Christ and 
baptism by fire ; and the cere- 
monies which they observe are 
much the same with those of the 
Greek Church 4 See Jacobites 
and Greek Church. 

CORNARISTS, the disciples 
of Theodore Cornhert, who 
maintained that every religious 
communion needed reformation ; 
but that no person had a right 
to engage in accomplishing it, 
without a mission supported by 
miracles. § 

CORRUPTICOL^E, a sect 
of the sixth century, who main- 
tained that the body of Christ 
was corruptible, like that of 
other men.l] 

CRISPITES, the followers 
of Dr. Crisp, whose name has 
been already mentioned under 
the article Antinomians, where 
it appears, that the doctor did 
not refuse obedience to the di- 
vine law, either in theory or 
practice. The Calvinists in 
general, however, suppose that 
he was not accurate in his ideas 
of the substitution of Christ in 
the place of the redeemed, but 
carried the doctrine of commu- 



* Platform of Church Discipline, 1648. NeaPs New England, vol. ii.p. 314, 
f A-iosheim, voi. i. p. 473. 

i Father Simons' Religion of the Eastern Nations, p. 110. 
§ Ency. toI. v. p. 433. j| Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol. i. p. 492. 



DAL 



DAN 



tatioii to an extreme that re- 
presented the Saviour as him- 
self a sinner through his union 
with the elect. * 

Dr. Gill in 1746 reprinted 
Crisp's Works with notes, in 
which he justified some of his 
peculiar expressions and apolo- 
gized for others. His sermons 
produced a seven years' theolo- 
gical warfare, Dr. Daniel Wil- 
liams being his principal antag- 
onist. See Neonomians. 

^CRUSADERS, amultitude 
gathered from all the countries 
of Christendom, who undertook 
a Crusade fCroisadeJ or holy 
war under the banners of the 
cross, to recover Palestine from 
the Turks. To this wild scheme 
they were first excited by Peter 
the hermit, who, under the au- 
spices of Pope Mattin II. gath- 
ered nearly a million of per- 
sons, mercenaries and enthusi- 
asts, who in 1096 first invaded 



the holy land with a partial suc- 
cess. This encouraged them to 
seven other successive cru- 
sades, of which the last was in 
1270, and left tha object unac- 
complished. It has been cal- 
culated that two millions of per- 
sons perished in these several 
expeditions, and left a warning 
to posterity against engaging 
in such wild projects under 
the influence of religious fren- 

zy-t 

*CYNICS, a sect of snarling 
philosophers who were proud of 
showing their contempt, not 
only for riches and state, but 
for the arts and sciences, and 
all the comforts of civilized life. 
This sect was founded by An- 
tisthenes of Athens, but carried 
to its highest glory by Diogenes, 
who wandered like a beggar in 
a ragged cloak, and carried with 
him a tub which served him for 
his lodging.:): 



D 



*DALEITES, the follow- 
ers of David Dale, a very in- 
dustrials manufactureri a most 
benevolent Christian) and the 
humble pastor of an indepeji- 
dent c<>:).u;i i at Glas- 

gow, At first ho formed a con- 
nexion with ttlS GHo88itC8 9 in 
many of whose opinions lie con- 
curred: he separated from them, 
chiefly on the ground of pee- 
ring practical to speculative 



religion, and christian charity 
to severity of chorch discipline. 
As lie grew rich by industry, he 
devoted all his property to do- 
ing good, and ranks high among 
the philanthropists of his age.§ 

DAMIANISTS, disciples of 
Damian, bishop of Alexandria 
in the sixth century. Their o- 
pinions were similar to those of 
the dngdites* 

DANGERS, a sect which 



* Buck\ Thiol. Diet. Hist, of Dissenters, vol. i.p. 399, 

* Stanley's Hist of i v. § Scotch Theolog. 1 



f Ency. Brit. 



DAY 



63 



DEI 



arose at Aix-la-Chapelle in 
1373, whence they spread 
through Liege, Hainault, and 
other parts of Flanders. It was 
customary for persons of both 
sexes, publicly, as well as in 
private, to begin dancing of a 
sudden ; and, holding each oth- 
ers' hands, to continue their mo- 
tions with extraordinary vio- 
lence, till they dropt breathless 
together. They affirmed, that 
during these intervals of agita- 
tion, they were favoured with 
w r onderful visions. Like the 
Flagellants, they wandered a- 
bout from place to place ; h^d 
recourse to begging for their 
sustenance; and treated with 
the utmost contempt both the 
priesthood and the church.* 

The clergy supposed them to 
be possessed, and applied exor- 
cism, as they say, with complete 
success. M. Boimet, however, 
gives the honour of these holy 
dances to the Catholic church, 
and F. Menestrier says the 
choir originally received its 
name from being the part of the 
church where the priests used 
to dance together ; and the cus- 
tom of religious dancing was 
continued by the Brandons in 
France as low dow T n as the be- 
ginning of the eighteenth cen- 
tury.! 

DAVIDISTS, or David- 
Georgians, the followers of Da- 
vid George, of Delft, in the six- 
teenth century, who acquired 
great reputatfe** by his prudent 
conversation. He deplored the 



decline of vital and practical re- 
ligion, and endeavoured to re* 
store it among his followers; 
but rejected, as mean and use- 
less, the external services of the 
church. Many extravagancies 
are charged on him, which per- 
haps were founded on the un- 
guarded expressions of his illit- 
erate zeal. He w r as condemned 
for a heretic after his death, 
and his body burned; but he 
left disciples, which appear to 
be men of good report.:): 

DEISTS, a class of men 
whose distinguishing character 
is, not to profess any particu- 
lar form or system of religion ; 
but who merely acknowledge the 
existence of a God, and profess 
to follow the law and light of na- 
ture, rejecting all divine reve- 
lation, and consequently Chris- 
tianity. The denomination was 
first assumed early in the six- 
teenth century, by some persons 
who wished to clear themselves 
from the charge of atheism. P. 
Viret, in 1563, speaks of deists 
as a new name, applied to those 
who professed to believe in God, 
but rejected Jesus Christ. 

Lord Ed. Herbert, baron of 
Cherbury, who flourished in the 
seventeenth century, has been 
regarded as the most eminent 
of the deistical writers, and ap- 
pears to be one of the first who 
formed deism into a system; 
and asserted the sufficiency, uni- 
versality, and absolute perfec- 
tion of natural religion, with a 
view to discard all extraordina- 



* Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 206. f Barney's Hist, of Music, vol. ii. p. 27 

i Mosheim, vol iv. p. 164, Crosby, Eng. Bap. vol. i. p. 64. 



DEI 



64 



DEI 



ry revelation as useless and 
needless. He reduced this uni- 
versal religion to live articles, 
which he frequently mentions in 
his works. 1. That there is 
one supreme God. 2. That he 
is to be worshipped. 3. That 
piety and virtue are the princi- 
pal parts of his worship. 4. 
That if we repent of our sins, 
God will pardon us. 5. That 
there are rewards for good men, 
and punishments for bad men, 
in a future state.* 

The Deists are classed by 
some of their own writers into 
two sorts, mortal and immortal 
deists. The latter acknowledge 
a future state, the former deny 
it, or at least represent it as a 
very uncertain tiling. 

Dr. S. Clarke, taking the de- 
nomination in the most exten- 
sive signification, distinguishes 
deists into four sorts. 1. Such 
as believe the existence of an 
infinite, eternal Being, who 
made the world, though they 
suppose he docs not concern 
himself in its government. 2. 
Those who believe not only the 
being, but also the providence 
of God, with respect to the nat- 
ural world ; but who, not al- 
lowing any difference between 
moral good and evil, deny that 
God takes any notice of the 
moral conduct of mankind. 3. 
Such as believe in the natural 
attributes of God and his all- 
governing providence, and have 
some notion of his moral per- 
fections, yel deny the immortal- 
ity of the sou! ; believing that 



men perish entirely at death, 
without any future renovation. 
4. Such as admit the existence 
of God, together with his prov- 
idence, as also all the obliga- 
tions of natural religion ; but so 
far only as these things are dis- 
coverable by the lignt of nature 
alone, without any divine rev- 
elation. 

Some of the deists have at- 
tempted to overthrow the Chris- 
tian dispensation, by represent- 
ing the absolute perfection of 
natural religion. Others, as 
Blount, Collins, and Morgan, 
have endeavoured to gain the 
same purpose, by attacking par- 
ticular parts of the Christian 
scheme, by explaining away the 
literal sense and meaning of cer- 
tain passages, or by placing one 
portion of the sacred canon in 
opposition to the other. A 
third class, wherein we meet 
with the names of Shaftsbury 
and Bolingbroke, advancing far- 
ther in their progress, expunge 
from their creed the doctrine of 
future existence, and deny or 
controvert all the moral perfec- 
tions of the Deity. 

The deists of the present day 
arc distinguished by their zea- 
lous efforts to diffuse the princi- 
ples of infidelity among the 
common people. Hume, Bo- 
Lingbroke, and Gibbon address- 
ed themselves solely to the more 
polished classes of the commu- 
nity ; and would have thought 
their refined speculations debas- 
ed by an attempt to eulist dis- 
ciples among the populace. But 



* LelftlkPa View of Deistical Writers, vol. i. p. 2. 



DES 



65 



DES 



of late the writings of Paine, 
and others, have diffused infi- 
delity among the lower orders 
of society : and deism has even 
led to atheism, or a disbelief of 
all superiour powers.* 

OBSTRUCTIONISTS, a 
denomination of Christians who 
teach that the final punishment 
threatened in the gospel to the 
wicked and impenitent, con- 
sists not in eternal misery, but 
in a total extinction of being ; 
and that the sentence of annihi- 
lation shall be executed with 
more or less torment, in propor- 
tion to the greater or less guilt 
of the criminal. 

The name assumed by this 
denomination, takes for granted 
that the scripture word destruc- 
tion means annihilation. In 
strict propriety of speech they 
should therefore be called Anni- 
hilationists. This doctrine is 
largely maintained in the ser- 
mons of Mr. S. Bourn, of Bir- 
mingham ; by Mr. J. N. Scott, 
Mr. J. Taylor, of Norwich, and 
many others. 

In defence of the system, Mr. 
Bourn argues as follows : There 
are many passages of scripture, 
in which the ultimate punish- 
ment to which wicked men shall 
be adjudged, is defined in the 
most precise terms, to be an ev- 
erlasting destruction from the 
power of God, which is equally 
able to destroy as to preserve. 
So when our Saviour is fortify- 



ing the minds of his disciples a- 
gainst the wrath of men, he ex- 
presses himself thus : Fear not 
them that kill the body, but him 
who is able to destroij both soul 
and body in hell. And when he 
says, These shall go away into 
everlasting punishment, but the 
rightemis into life eternal, Mr. B. 
understands, by that eternal pun- 
ishment, which is opposed to ex- 
ternal life, not a state of perpet- 
ual misery, but total and ever- 
lasting destruction from the pres- 
ence of the Lord, which is ' the 
second death,' from which there 
is no resurrection.f Mr. Bourn 
alleges, that the figures, by 
which the eternal punishment 
of wicked men is described, a- 
gree to establish the doctrine 
of the annihilation of the finally 
impenitent. One figure or com- 
parison often used, is that of 
combustible materials thrown 
into a fire, which will conse- 
quently be entirely consumed, 
if the fire be not quenched. So 
the cities of Sodom and Gomor- 
rah are said to have suffered 
the vengeance of an eternal fire ; 
that is, they were so effectually 
consumed or destroyed, that 
they could never be rebuilt; the 
expression of eternal fire signi- 
fying the irrevocable destruc- 
tion of those cities, not the de- 
gree or duration of the misery 
of the inhabitants, who perish- 
ed. The images of the worm 
that dieth not, and the f re that is 



* Leland's View of Deistical Writers, vol. i. p. 2, 3. Broughton's Hist. 
Lib vol. i. p. 315. Voltaire's Universal Hist. vol. ii p. 259. Ogilve's Inquiry, 
p. 57. Hall's Sermon on Modern Infidel itv. Dwight's Centurv Sermon preach- 
ed Jan. r, 1801. 

f Bourn's Serin, vol. i. p. 379—395. 
9 



DIG 



66 



DOM 



not quenched, used in Murk ix. 
44. are set in opposition to en- 
tering into life, and intended to 
denote a period of life and ex- 
istence. 

To this scheme Dr. Jon. Ed- 
wards opposes many objections, 
as — 1. That the punishment of 
annihilation admits of no de- 
grees. — 2. That this destruction 
is not described as the end, but 
the beginning of misery. — 3. 
That annihilation is not an ex- 
ertion, but a suspension only of 
divine power. — 4. That the pun- 
ishment of the wicked is to be 
the same as that of the fallen 
angels, Matt. xxv. 41. — 5. That 
the state of final punishment is 
attended with weeping and 
gnashing of teeth, Matt. xxiv. 
51. — 6. As the happiness of the 
just does not consist in eternal 
being, but t^W-bcing, so the pu- 
nishment of the wicked requires 
the idea of eternal suffering to 
support the contrast.* 

i *DIACONOFTSCHINS,the 
followers of Alexander, a Dea- 
con (whence their name) of the 
church of Vetka, from which he 
separated in iron, frotoi some 
dispute relative to the chrism 
and the sign of the cross : and 
this sect has since separated in- 
to three or lour minor ones, all 
equally zealous dissenters. 
Raskolniks.j 

DIGGERS, a name given to 
those in the fifteenth < entury, 
who, being persecuted, wnv 
obliged t'> hold their assemblies 



in caverns and caves dug in the 
earth. They are said to have 
despised the church of Rome 
and its ministers.^ 

D1MOERITES, See Jlpol- 
linarians. 

^DISSENTERS, all who 
dissent from the doctrines of the 
church of England, of which the 
principal denominations are — 
Presbyterians,Independents,and 
Baptists; to which may he added 
Quakers, Methodists, and ma- 
ny others. See Nonconformists. 

^DISSIDENTS, a term ap- 
plied to the reformed churches 
in Poland. By the pacta con- 
venta they claim a free tolera- 
tion of their religion, but this 
has been often interrupted.^ 

DOCETiE, a sect in the 
first and second centuries, who 
held that Jesus Christ was horn, 
lived in the world, died, and 
rose again, not in reality, hut in 
appearance on!y.|| Sec Gnostics. 

DOMINICANS, a religious 
order, in some places called Ja- 
cohins, and in others Predi- 
cants, or preaching friars. The 
Dominicans take their name 
from their foiinder, Dominic de 
Guzman, a Spaniard, horn in 
i iro, at Calaroga, in Old Cas- 
tile, lie was first canon and 
archdeacon of Orsuna; and af- 
terwards preached with great 
zeal and vehemence against the 
Albigensesin Languedoc, where 
he laid the (list foundation of 
his order, which was confirmed 
i:i ! 2M), by a hull of lionorius 



ilvation of:ill men examined /chap. v. 
t Pii Greek Church, p. 302. Broughton, vol. i. p. C28. 

- B ick'j Theol. Diet. I! B , vol. i. p. 339. 



DOR 



67 



DOS 



III. under the title of St. Augus- 
tin, to which Dominic added 
several severe precepts and ob- 
servances. He obliged the bre- 
thren to take a vow of absolute 
poverty, and to abandon entire- 
ly all their revenues and posses- 
sions, and assume the title of 
Preaching Friars, because pub- 
lic instruction was the main end 
of their institution. This or- 
der long retained a high degree 
of authority. But their influence 
began to decline towards the be- 
ginning of the sixteenth century, 
in consequence of their pretend- 
ed apparitions and miracles, to 
terminate their dispute with the 
Franciscans.^ See Franciscans. 

DONATISTS, a denomina- 
tion which arose by a schism in 
the fourth century. They de- 
rived their name from Donatus, 
a learned bishop of Numidia. 
They maintained that their com- 
munity was alone to be consid- 
ered as the true church, and a- 
voided all communication with 
others, as degenerated and im- 
pure. They re-baptized those 
came over to their party from 
other churches, and, if minis- 
ters, re-ordained them. They 
were much persecuted by the 
orthodox, though they agreed 
with them in point of faith, and 
are not charged with immorali- 
ty. They remained till the sixth 
centurv.f 

DORRELLITES, the fol- 
lowers of Dorrel, a sectary, 
who appeared at Leyden in Mas- 
sachusetts in 1797, and pretend- 
ed to be a prophet, sent to su- 



persede the dispensation of Je- 
sus Christ, and claimed divine 
worship in his stead. It ap- 
pears, from an account of his 
tenets, which was taken down 
from his own mouth, by the 
Rev. John Taylor of Deerfield, 
that he denied the foreknow- 
ledge of God, and his almigh- 
ty power. "Jesus Christ," said 
he, " is to substance a spirit, 
and is God. He took a body, 
died, and never rose from the 
dead. None of the human race 
will ever rise from their graves. 
The resurrection spoken of in 
scripture, is only one from sin 
to spiritual life, which consists 
in perfect obedience to God. 
Written revelation is a type of 
the substance of the true reve- 
lation, which God makes to 
those whom he raises from spir- 
itual death. The substance is 
God revealed in the soul ; those 
who have it are perfect, are in- 
capable of sinning, and have 
nothing to do with the Bible." 
Dorrel denied future judgment ; 
and asserted, that neither pray- 
er nor any other worship is 
necessary4 

*DOSITHEANS. The foun- 
der of this sect was a magician 
of Samaria, who pretended to 
be the Messiah. He had thirty 
disciples answering to the days 
of the month, and among them a 
woman,whom he called the moon. 
They practised circumcision, 
and rigid fastings, and in what- 
ever attitude the Sabbath found 
them, they remained dining its 
continuance. At last to make it 



• Mosheim,Vol. iv. p. 19. f Mosheim, vol. i. p. 333. $ See Mass. Spy, 1798. 



DUH 



68 



DUH 



believed he was taken to heav- 
en, he retired into a secret cav- 
ern, and starved himself to 
death : some remains of this 
sect were found in Egypt in the 
sixtli century.* 

*DRUIDS, the priests or 
ministers of religion among the 
Gauls. They were chosen out 
of the best families, and divided 
into different classes — bards, 
who were both poets and mu- 
sicians — priests and divines — 
and moral philosophers, who 
were instructors of youth and 
sometimes judges. They wore 
long white robes and chaplets, 
carried wands, with a mystic 
symbol round their necks, call- 
ed the druid's egg. They ad- 
mitted no images in their reli- 
gious worship, which was per- 
formed in groves of oak ; but 
they paid peculiar honours to 
the misletoe. 

Mr. Bryant maintains that 
the sun was the grand object of 
their worship, and that Stone- 
hetige exhibits the remains of 
one of their vast temples, con- 
sisting of massy stones in a cir- 
cular form in the open air. some- 
times poised on each other in 
the manner of rocking stones, f 

DUHOBORTSI, a sect of 
Russian dissenters, who sprang 
up among the common peasants 
about the middle of the last cen- 
tury. Their name is supposed 
to have been given them in1 788 
by an archbishop, who by this 
designation intended to point 
out the errors contained in their 



doctrines, for Dahoborets liter- 
ally signifies, a wrestle with the 
spirit. They call themselves 
Christians, and all others they 
denominate men of the world. 

The chief and distinguishing 
dogma of this denomination is, 
the worshipping God in spirit 
and in truth ; and hence they 
not only throw aside all the cer- 
emonies of the Greek Church, 
but also reject baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, — regeneration 
and spiritual baptism in their 
opinion are the same. 

They hold no particular creed, 
but only say in regard to them- 
selves, that they are of the law 
of God, and of the faith of Je- 
sus. The symbol of faith of 
the Greek Church, or the Ni- 
cene creed, they not only re- 
spect, but confess all that it 
contains to be truth ; they mere- 
ly, however, assign it a place 
among their common psalms. 

They do not consider it to be 
essential to salvation, that a 
man should be a member of their 
society ; they say, that it is ne- 
cessary only to understand the 
ways of the Lord, and to walk 
in them, and to fulfil his will* 
for this is the way of salva- 
tion. 

" Excepting their principles 
of faith," says Mr. Pinkerton, 
"the Duhobortsi, in their do- 
mestic and Social life, may serve 
as an example to all other sects." 

They lead most exemplary lives; 

they are sober, industrious, dil- 
igent in their occupation, and 



• Mosh. vol i. p. 139, 140. Basnage's Hist, of the Jews, book ii chap. 13. 
| Er.cy. Brit, 



DUH 



69 



DUH 



of good and gentle dispositions. 
Laziness and drunkenness are 
vices not suffered among thein . 

They have no stated place ap- 
pointed for worship, as they 
account all places equally ho- 
ly. Neither do they appoint any 
particular days for this pur- 
pose, as they suppose all days 
alike. They hold their meet- 
ings in private houses. In the 
course of their meetings, they 
pray one after another, sing 
psalms, and explain the word 
of God. They have no ap- 
pointed priest, but confess Je- 
sus Christ to be the only just, 
pure, and undefiled priest, and 
to be their only teacher. Ev- 
ery one speaks according to the 
grace given him, for the ad- 
monishing and comforting of 
his brethren. Even women are 
not excluded ; for say they, 
"have not women enlightened 
understanding as well as men V 9 

The virtue which shines with 
the greatest lustre among this 
denomination, is brotherly love. 
They have no private proper- 
ty, but all things common. 
They are hospitable to stran- 
gers, compassionate to such as 
are in distress, and merciful to 
their beasts. 

They have no kind of pun- 
ishments among them, except 
expulsion from their society; 
and this only for such trans- 
gressions, as prove the person 
to have lost the spirit of Chris- 
tianity. Those, who are ex- 
cluded, may be restored, on giv- 
ing evidence of their repent- 
ance. 



They have no magistrates in 
their society, and no written 
laws or regulations ; but the 
society at large governs itself, 
and each individual in it. They 
are seldom troubled with di- 
visions and animosities, al- 
though two or three young fam- 
ilies live together in one house. 
Their children are in the strict- 
est subjection to their parents, 
and in general, young people 
among them pay the most pro- 
found respect to the aged. 

The manner, in which this 
denomination educate their chil- 
dren, is simple and peculiar to 
themselves. As soon as a child 
begins to speak, the parents 
teach him to get by heart short 
prayers and psalms, and relate 
to him such passages of the sa- 
cred history as are calculated 
to engage his attention. In 
this manner, they continue to 
instruct their children in the 
doctrines of the gospel, till they 
are of age. When the chil- 
dren have thus committed to 
memory several prayers and 
psalms, they go to the meetings, 
repeat their prayers and sing 
psalms, with the rest. In this 
way the sentiments of the par- 
ents are, by little and little, in- 
stilled into their children, and 
seated in their young minds by 
the exemplary conduct of their 
parents. Hence it has often 
been observed, that the children 
of the Duhobortsi are distin- 
guished among all other chil- 
dren, like stalks of wheat a- 
mong oats. 

This denomination suffered 



DUN 



70 



DUN 



continued persecution from all 
quarters, until the reign of Al- 
exander. In 1801 two senators 
were sent to review the affairs 
of the government in the Uk- 
raine. They were the first who 
represented this people to the 
emperour in a true light. They 
were prior to this, scattered in 
different provinces. The em- 
perour gave them permission 
to settle at a place called Mo- 
lishnia Vodi. Here they form- 
ed two settlements in 1804.* 

DULCIN1STS, the follow- 
ers of Dulcinus of Lombardy, 
in the fourteenth century; who, 
after predicting the downfal of 
the Pope, took arms to fulfil his 
own prophecy, and perished 
miserably in the attempt. He 
joined the Apostolics and be- 
came a leader in their sect be- 
fore he founded one of his 
own.f 

DUNKERS, a denomination 
which took its rise in the year 
1724. It was founded by Con- 
rad Peysel, a Gorman, who, 
weary of the world, retired to 
an agreeable solitude within 
fifty miles of Philadelphia, for 
the more free exercise of reli- 
gious contemplation. Curiosi- 
ty attracted followers, and his 
simple and engaging manners 
made them proselytes. They 
soon settled a little colony, csill- 
ed Buphrata, in allusion to the 
Bebrews, who used to sing 
psalms on the border of the riv- 



er Euphrates. They are said 
to derive their name from bap- 
tizing by immersion, which 
they perform thrice. And as 
they presented themselves to 
the ordinance in a peculiar 
manner, bowing forward, (per- 
haps kneeling in the water, as 
an act of worship,) they were 
in ridicule called Tumblers. 
This is the more probable, as it 
appeal's their baptism was ac- 
companied with the laying on 
of hands and prayer while in 
the water. 

Their habit seems peculiar 
to themselves, consisting of a 
long tunic, or coat, reaching 
down to their feet, with a sash, 
or girdle, round the waist, and 
a cap, or hood, hanging from 
the shoulders, like the dress of 
the Dominican friars. The men 
do not shave the head or beard. 
The men and women have sep- 
arate habitations and distinct 
governments. For these pur- 
poses, they have erected two 
large wooden buildings, one of 
which is occupied by the breth- 
ren, the other by the sisters of 
the society ; and in each of them 
there is a banqueting- room, and 
an apartment for public wor- 
ship : for the brethren and sis- 
ters do not meet together even 
at their devotions. They live 
chiefly upon roots and other 
vegetables; the rules of their 
society not allowing them llesh, 
except on particular occasions, 



* Pbr farther particulars respecting the Duhobortsi, see Pinkcrton's Pres- 
ent state of tl church in Russia, p. 250, 251, 252, &c. See al«o 
Christian Disciple for Feb. 1817. 

: MoslKim, vol. iii. p. <J 1. 



DUN 



DUR 



when they hold what they call 
a lOve-feast ; at which time the 
brethren and sisters dine to- 
gether in a large apartment, and 
eat mutton, but no other meat. 
In eacli of their little cells they 
have a bench fixed, to serve t he- 
purpose of a bed, and a small 
block of wood for a pillow. The 
Dunkers allow of no intercourse 
between the brethren and sis- 
ters, not even by marriage. 

The principal tenet of the 
Dunkers appears to be this : 
That future happiness is only to 
be attained by penance and 
outward mortifications in this 
life ; and that as Jesus Christ 
by his meritorious sufferings 
became the redeemer of man- 
kind in general, so, — each indi- 
vidual of the human race, by a 
life of abstinence and restraint, 
should work out his own sal- 
vation. They are charged with 
holding the doctrine of super- 
erogation : they deny the eter- 
nity of future punishments, and 
believe that the souls of the just 
are employed to preach the 
gospel to those who have had 
no revelation in this life. They 
suppose the Jewish sabbath, 
sabbatical year, and year of 
jubilee, are typical of certain 
periods after the general judg- 
ment, in which the souls of 
those who are so far humbled 
as to acknowledge God and 
Christ, are received to felicity ; 
while those who continue ob- 



stinate arc reserved in torments 
until the grand period typified 
by the jubilee arrives, in which 
all shall be made eventually 
happy. They also deny the 
imputation of Adam's sin to his 
posterity. So that they are 
general baptists and univer- 
salists. But they disclaim vi- 
olence even in cases of self-de- 
fence, and suffer themselves to 
be defrauded or wronged rath- 
er than go to law ; on which 
accounts they have been called 
the harmless Dunkers. 

Their church government and 
discipline are the same with 
those of the English Baptists, 
except that every brother is al- 
lowed to speak in the congrega- 
tion; and their best speaker 
is usually ordained to be their 
minister. They have deacons 
and deaconesses from among 
their ancient widows and ex- 
horters, who are all licensed to 
use their gifts statedly.* 

*DURSIANS or Duruxians, 
a fierce people inhabiting the 
wilds of mount Libanus, and in 
the eleventh century engaged 
in the holy war. There is ev- 
idence, that they embraced the 
general profession of Christi- 
anity ; but their peculiar tenets 
were kept so secret, that they 
cannot now r be ascertained with 
certainty : it is probable how- 
ever that they w r cre Maniche- 
ans.f 



* Casnipina's Lett p. 70— 72. Review of North America, vol. i. p. 225. 
1 Adams' ^Religious world displayed,' and Winchester's Dialogues. 
J f Mbsheim, vol. iv. p. 270. 



em 



ECL 



E 



EbIONITES, a denomina- 
tion in the first and second cen- 
turies ; so called from their lea- 
der Ebion, or from their pover- 
ty, which Ebion signifies in He- 
brew. They believed the di- 
vine mission of Christ, and, it 
is said, his participation of a 
divine nature ; yet they regard- 
ed him as a man, born of Jo- 
seph and Mary, according to 
the ordinary course of nature. 
They asserted, that the cere- 
monial law, instituted by Mo- 
ses, was not only obligatory 
upon the Jews, but also upon all 
others, and that the observance 
of it was essential to salvation. 
They observed both the Jewish 
sabbath and the Lord's day ; 
and in celebrating the eu dia- 
rist made use of unleavened 
bread. They abstained from 
the flesh of animals, and even 
from milk. They rejected the 
old testament, and in the new 
testament received only the 
gospel of St. Matthew, and a 
book which they styled, « The 
gospel according to the He- 
brews."' 

Some ancient writers distin- 
guish two kinds of Kbionites ; 
— the one, usually called Naz- 
arencs, and only Judaizbig 
Christians, who mingled the 
institutions of Moses with those 
of Christ : (See .YaxarcncsJ 

and the other. Unitarians, who 

denied the divinity of Jesus, 



* Motheim,Yol i. p. 173, 1 74, 



and rejected a part of the scrip- 
tures. * 

ECLECTICS, a name giv- 
en to certain ancient philos- 
ophers, who endeavoured to 
form a system of opinions by 
selecting from every sect those 
doctrines, which seemed to ap- 
proach nearest to the truth. 
Hence their denomination, de- 
rived from exxiya, " I choose," 
may be considered as referring 
either to ",one who chooses," or 
one which may be chosen. 

The eclectic philosophy was 
in a flourishing state at Alex- 
andria, when our Saviour was 
upon earth. Its founders wish- 
ed to be considered as chiefly 
followers of Plato, whose phi- 
losophy they made the founda- 
tion of their system. But the} 
did not scruple to join with his 
doctrines, whatever they thought 
conformable to reason in the 
tenets of other philosophers. 
Potamon, a Platonist, appears 
to have been the projector of 
this plan. The eclectic system 
was brought to perfection by 
Ammonius Saccas, who blend- 
ed Christianity with his phi- 
losophy, and founded the sect 
of the AmmonUins, or Mtw 
I'latonists, in the second cen- 
tury. See Jimmonians. 

The moral doctrine of the 
Alexandrian school was as fol- 
lows : — The mind of man, ori- 
ginally a portion of the divine 

Hcarne'l Duc'ior Ilistoricus, vol. ii.pp. 74. 



EGY 



{ o 



EGY 



Being, having fallen into a state 
of darkness and defilement by 
its union with the body, is to be 
gradually emancipated from the 
chains of matter, and rise by 
contemplation to the knowledge 
and vision of God. The end of 
philosophy, therefore, is the lib- 
eration of the soul from its cor- 
poreal imprisonment. For this 
purpose the Eclectic philosophy 
recommends abstinence, with 
other voluntary mortifications, 
and religious exercises. 

In the infancy of the Alex- 
andrian school, not a few of the 
professors of Christianity were 
led, by the pretensions of the 
Eclectic sect, to imagine that a 
coalition might, with great ad- 
vantage, be formed between its 
system and that of Christianity. 
This union appeared the more 
desirable, when several philos- 
ophers of this sect became con- 
verts to the christian faith. The 
consequence was, that pagan 
ideas and opinions were by de- 
grees mixed with the pure and 
simple doctrines of the gospel.* 

EFFRONTES, sectaries, so 
called from shaving their fore- 
heads till they bled, (which they 
called the baptism of blood,) and 
then anointing them with oil ; 
using no other baptism, and de- 
nying the person and deity of 
the Holy Ghost.f 

EGYPTIANS, ancient, one 
of the most renowned of the 
early nations, who, like the 
Babylonians, originally wor- 



shipped the sun, and afterwards 
inferiour deities, which they es- 
teemed emanations from it. 
" They were refined in their su- 
perstitions above all nations in 
the world ; and conferred the 
names and titles of their dei- 
ties upon vegetables and animals 
of every species ; and not only 
upon these, but also upon the 
parts of the human body, and 
the very passions of the mind. 
Whatever they deemed saluta- 
ry, or of great value, they dis- 
tinguished by the title of sacred, 
and dedicated it to some god. 
They had many emblematical 
personages, set off with the 
heads of various animals, to 
represent particular virtues and 
affections, as well as to denote 
the various attributes of their 
gods.'^ Thus they "worshipped 
the creature more than the Cre- 
ator;' 5 and were given up to 
idolatry beyond other coun- 
tries, becoming the source of 
superstition to all the eastern 
nations. They paid particular 
honours to the serpent and cro- 
codile, and to the Ibis, as a most 
useful animal. Apis was wor- 
shipped in the form of an ox or 
cow, and Osiris as a goat ; and 
the souls of their superiour dei- 
ties were supposed to reside in 
the stars or planets. Some have 
taken great pains to prove that 
their idols had originally a ref- 
erence to the scripture history, 
and particularly to the patri- 
arch Joseph.§ 



* Alfielcl's Philos. Edinburgh Ency. Mosheim, vol. i. p. 37, 171. 
f Ross* View of all Religions, p. 233. \ Rrvant's Analysis, vol. i. p. 333. 

% Bellamv's Hist, of all Religions, p. 21, &c. 
10 



ENG 



KNG 



EICETiE, a sect in the year 
680, who affirmed that, iii order 
to make prayer acceptable to 
God, it should be performed 
with agitations both of mind 
and body.* See Dancers. 

ELCESAITES, the follow- 
ers of Elxai (or Elcesia,) a sec- 
tary of the second century > 
whether Jew or Christian is un- 
certain ; but he held the doc- 
trine of two principles, and oth- 
er points of Manicheanism. 
He was succeeded by Saturni- 
nus.f 

ENCRATITES, or Conti- 
nenU~ 9 a sect' in the second or 
third century, who condemned 
marriage; forbade the eatingof 
flesh, or the drinking of wine ; 
rejected all the comforts and 
conveniences of life, and prac- 
tised great mortification of the 
body. They appeal* to have 
been a branch of the Mani- 
cheans4 

ENERGICI, sectaries in the 
sixteenth century, charged with 
holding that the eucharist was 
the energy and virtue of Jesus 
Christ; not his body, nor a 
mere representation thereof. § 

ENGLISH CHtfRCH. The 
church of England is Episco- 
pal, and boasts a regular suc- 
cession of bishops, from the 
times of the apostles, conveyed 
to them by the church of Rome. 
See Episcopalians. 

The reformation was intro- 
duced into England during the 
reign of Henry VIII, who up- 



on his altercation with the Pope, 
took the management of eccle- 
siastical affairs into his own 
hands, and styled himself the 
supreme head oj the church, which 
title has since been given to the 
English monarchs. Under the 
king, the church of England is 
governed by two archbishops 
and twenty four bishops. The 
various grades among the cler- 
gy are styled, deans, archdea- 
cons, rectors, vicars, &c. 

The liturgy was introduced 
in the reign of Edward VI, and 
re-established in that of Eliza- 
beth, with some few alterations. 
During the reign of this queen, 
the thirty nine articles were al- 
so established. It has been gen- 
erally held by most, if not all 
Calvinists, both in and out of 
the establishment, that the doc- 
trinal articles of the English 
church are Calvinistic. This 
opinion, however, has been 
warmly controverted by others, 
who interpret them in favour of 
Arminianism. The former 
opinion has been defended by 
Dr. Scott, Mr. Toplady, Dr. 
Ilawcis, Sir II. Hill, and more 
recently by Mr. Overton. The 
latter has been as strenuously 
maintained by Dr. Kipling, 
Mr. Daubeny, and the present 
bishop of Lincoln ; and the dis- 
pute has never run higher upon 
the subject, than it has done of 
late years. " Each party," 
says Mr. Adam. " seem to un- 
derstand the articles exclusive- 



* Dufresnoy's Chronological roL i.p. 213. 

f Mosheim, vol. i.p. 216, new el. Mosheim, vol, i. 180. 

5 History of Religion, vol. iv. 



ENG 



4 J 



ENG 



ly in their own sense. But as 
some of our reformers were in- 
clined to Calvinism, and others 
to Arminianism, it is, perhaps, 
more natural to believe with 
some of our ablest divines, that 
the thirty-nine articles were 
framed with comprehensive lat- 
itude, and that neither Cal- 
vinism, nor Arminianism was 
meant to be exclusively estab- 
lished. 

The law requires all persons, 
who are admitted into holy or- 
ders, to subscribe to the thirty- 
nine articles. In the course of 
the last century, disputes arose 
among the English clergy re- 
specting the propriety of sub- 



in making 
And therefore the gen- 



government, owing to dissimu- 
larity of circumstances, in a 
very different manner. In this 
organization, indeed, the prin- 
ciple is by both churches recog- 
nized, that all orders of the 
church, affected by the laws, 
should have a vota 
them 

eral convention,, which is the 
highest legislative authority of 
the protestant episcopal church, 
is composed of two houses, the 
house of bishops, and the house 
of clerical and lay deputies, 
consisting of deputies from the 
different state or diocesan con- 
ventions of the church ; and the 
concurrence of both houses is 
necessary to every act of the 
convention ; and in the house 
of clerical and lay deputies, the 
two orders, clerical and lay, 
have a negative upon each oth- 
er. The general convention 
meets triennially. In every 
state or diocess, there is a con- 
vention, consisting of the bish- 
op, the clergy and laity, who 
are represented by delegates 
from the congregations, and 
which usually meet once a 
year. Visitations are made bv 
the bishops to their respective 
diocesses, for the purpose of ex- 
amining the state of the church, 
inspecting the behaviour of the 
clergy, and administering the 
rite of confirmation. 

The thirty-nine articles have 
been adopted by the church in 
the United States, and are con- 



scribing to any human formula- 
ry of religious sentiments. An 
application for its removal was 
made in parliament in 1772, by 
the petitioning clergy, and re- 
ceived the most public discus- 
sion in the house of Commons, 
but was rejected in the house of 
Lords. 

The churches of England 
and Ireland were united by the 
anion of 1801, and form a grand 
national establishment ; but 
with a free toleration of dissen- 
ters in their principles and wor- 
ship, without admitting them 
to any of its emoluments, and 
excluding them from many offi- 
ces in the state. ^ 

The episcopal church in the 
United States of America, which 
is wholly independent of that of 
England, has organized her 

* Adam's Religious World displayed, vol ii. p. 337. Evans' Sketch 12 ed. 
p. 119. Toplady's Historical Proof of the Calvinism of the Church of Eng- 
land. Overton's True Churchman. Kipling- on the articles. Daubeny's Vin* 
dicix Eccles. Angl. Bp. of Lincoln's Charge, and Mr. Scott's Answer. 



EPI 



76 



EPI 



tained in all late editions of the 
book of common prayer, but 
subscription to them is not re- 
quired in candidates for holy 
orders, as in England. 

EONITES, the followers of 
Eon d* Etoile, a lunatic gen- 
tleman of Bretagne, in the 
twelfth century, who imagined 
that he was appointed to judge 
both the quick and dead. He 
ended his days in a miserable 
prison ; but persecution and 
death in the most dreadful forms, 
could not persuade his infatu- 
ated disciples to abandon his 
cause.^ 

EOQUINIANS, so called 
from Eoquinus in the sixteenth 
century, Mho is said to have 
taught that Christ did not die 
for the wicked, but for the faith- 
ful only.f 

*EPEFANOFT SCHINS, a 
small Russian sect, followers of 
a monk of Kieff, who got him- 
self ordained a bishop through 
forged letters of recommenda- 
tion. Being imprisoned on a 
discovery of the cheat, he died 
in confinement, but is by his 
sect esteemed a martyr. Their 
sentiments are nearly the same 
as the Starobredsi, or old cerc- 
monialists4 

EPICUREANS, They de- 
rive their name from Epicurus* 
the philosopher, who was horn 
in the 109th olympiad, or about 
240 years before Christ, lie 
accounted for the formation 
of the world hy supposing that 
a finite number of that infinite 



multitude of atoms, which fills 
the immense space of the uni- 
verse, falling fortuitously into 
the region of our world, were 
in consequence of their innate 
motion collected into one rude 
and indigested mass. All the 
various parts of nature were 
formed by those atoms, which 
were best fitted to produce 
them. The fiery particles 
formed themselves into air, and 
from those which subsided, the 
earth Mas produced. The 
mind, or intellect, was formed 
of particles most subtle in their 
nature, and capable of the most 
rapid motion. The world is 
preserved by the same mechan- 
ical causes by which it was 
framed, and from the same 
causes it will at last be dissolv- 
ed. 

Epicurus admitted that there 
were in the universe divine na- 
tures : but asserted that these 
happy beings did not incumber 
themselves with the government 
of the world ; yet that on ac- 
count of their excellent nature 
they are proper objects of rev- 
erence. 

The science of physics was, 
in the judgment of Epicurus, 
subordinate to that of ethics ; 
and his whole doctrine concern- 
ing nature was professedly a- 
dapted to rescue men from the 
dominion of troublesome pas- 
sions, and lay the foundation of 
a tranquil and happy life* Tic 
taught that man is to do every 
thing for his own sake ; that he 



• Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 457, 458. Broughtorfs Hist. Lib. voL i. p. 361. 
fvRoss' View of Religions, p. 234. i lMnkcrton's Russian Church, p. 304. 



EPI 



77 



ERA 



is to make his own happiness 
his chief end, and do all in his 
power to secure and preserve it. 
He considered pleasure as the 
ultimate good of mankind : but 
asserts, that he does not mean 
the pleasures of the luxurious ; 
but principally the freedom of 
the body from pain, and of the 
mind from anguish and pertur- 
bation. His followers however 
applied the principle to sensual 
indulgence, and this made his 
philosophy so popular that peo- 
ple of high rank and luxurious 
character generally embraced 
•it. The virtue he prescribes is 
resolved ultimately into our 
private advantage, without re- 
gard to the excellence of its 
own nature, or to its being com- 
manded by the Supreme Be- 
ing.* 

EPISCOPALIANS, an ap- 
pellation given to those who 
assert, that episcopacy is of di- 
vine right, and was the consti- 
tution of the primitive church. 
They maintain that bishops, 
[>e7r$<rx,oirovs] presbyters, (or 
priests) and deacons, are three 
distinct orders in the church ; 
and that the bishops have a su- 
periority over both the others 
directly from God ; in proof of 
this they allege, thatdurirjg our 
Saviour's stay upon earth, he 
had under him two distinct or- 
ders of ministers — the twelve, 
and the seventy ; and after his 
ascension, we read of apostles, 
presbyters, and deacons in the 



church. That the apostolic, or 
highest order, is designed to be 
permanent, they think, is evi- 
dent from bishops being insti- 
tuted by the apostles them* 
selves, to succeed them in great 
cities, as Timothy at Ephesus, 
Titus at Crete, &c. It appears 
that Timothy and Titus were 
superiour to modern presbyters, 
from the offices assigned them. 
Timothy was by Paul empow- 
ered to preside over the presby- 
ters of Ephesus, to receive ac- 
cusations against them, (1 Tim. 
v. 19.) to exhort, to charge, and 
even to rebuke them ; and Ti- 
tus was, by the same apostle, 
left in Crete for the express pur- 
pose of setting things in order, 
and ordaining presbyters in 
every city. 

They contend that bishops, 
in the sense in which they use 
the term, certainly existed in 
the churches as early as A. D. 
1 60. They lay great stress on 
the writings of the Christian 
Fathers on this point, and in 
particular on Clement, on the 
Epistles of St. Ignatius.f The 
Roman and English are the 
principal episcopal churches in 
the w T est of Europe. 

ERASTIANS, the followers 
of Erastus, a German divine of 
the sixteenth century. The 
pastoral office, according to 
him, was only persuasive, like 
a professor of sciences over his 
students without any power an- 
nexed ; the Lord's supper, and 



* Leland's Discourses on the Christian Revelation. 

f Dr. Edwards* Remains, p. 229. Ency. vol. vi. p. 689— 692. Adam'* 
Religious World displayed, vol. ii. p. 275 y &c. 



ESS 



\s 



ESS 



other ordinances of the gospel, 
were to be free and open to aii ; 
the minister might dissuade the 
vicious and unqualified from 
the communion — but might not 
refuse it, or inflict any kind of 
censure ; the punishment of all 
offences being referred to the 
civil magistrate.* 

ESSENES, a Jewish sect, 
which maintained that rewards 
and punishments extended to 
the soul only, and considered 
the body as a mass of malig- 
nant matter, and the prison of 
the immortal spirit. The great- 
est part of them considered the 
laws of Moses as an allegori- 
cal system of spiritual and mys- 
terious truth, and renounced all 
regard to the outward letter in 
its explanation. The leading 
traits in the character of this 
sect were, that they were sober, 
abstemious, peaceable, lovers of 
retirement, and had a perfect 
community of goods. They 
paid the highest regard to the 
moral precepts of the law ; but 
neglected the ceremonial, ex- 
cepting what regarded personal 
cleanliness, the observation of 
the sabbath, and making an an- 
nual present to the temple at 
Jerusalem. They commonly 
lived in a state o£ celibacy, and 
adopted the children of others, 
to educate them in their own 
principles and customs. Though 
they were in general averse to 
oaths, they hound all whom 
they initiated by the most sa- 



cred vows to observe the duties 
of piety, justice, fidelity, and 
modesty ; to conceal the se- 
crets of the fraternity ; to pre- 
serve the books of their in- 
structors, and with great care 
to commemorate the names of 
the angels. 

Philo mentions two classes of 
Essenes, one of which followed 
a practical, the other a theoreti- 
cal institution. The latter, who 
were called Therapeutce 9 placed 
their whole felicity in the con- 
templation of the divine nature. 
Detaching themselves entire- 
ly from secular affairs, they 
transferred their property to 
their relations and friends, and 
retired to solitary places, where 
they devoted themselves to a 
holy life. The principal soci- 
ety of this kind was formed 
near Alexandria, where they 
lived not far from each other 
in separate cottages, each of 
which had its own sacred a- 
partments, to which the inhabi- 
tants retired for the purposes of 
devotion. f 

Philo says. lib. v. cap. 17. 
1 1n* Essenes were in number a- 
bout four thousand in Judea; 
and Pliny seems to fix their 
principal abode above Kngedi, 
where they fed on the fruit of 
palm trees. He adds, that they 
lived at a distance from the sea- 
shore, for fear of being corrupt- 
ed by the conversation of stran- 
gers. 

We do not see that Jesus 



• Neal'a History of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 140. 
f Enfield's llist.'of Phile* vol. ii. p. 186. Sec also Joscphus' 
IVideuux's Connect, Calmet'a Dictionary. 



Antiq. and 



EUS 



79 



EUT 



Christ hath spoken of them, or 
that he preached among them. 
It is not improbable, that John 
Baptist lived among them, till 
he began to baptize and preach. 
The wilderness, where Pliny 
places the Essenes, was not 
very far from Hebron, which 
is thought by some to be the 
place of John's birth.* 

ETHNOPHRONES, i. e. 
Paganizers, a sect in the eighth 
century, who, professing Chris- 
tianity, joined thereto all the 
ceremonies of paganism ; such 
as judicial astrology, divina- 
tions of all kinds, &c; and who 
observed the feasts, times, and 
seasons, of the Gentiles. f 

EUCHITES. See Massali- 
ans. 

EUDOXIANS, a branch of 
the Arians in the fourth centu- 
ry ; so called from Eudoxus, 
who, after the death of Arius, 
became head of the party.j: 
See Arians. 

EUNOMIANS. See .arums. 

EUSEBIANS, the followers 
of Eusebius, the very learned 
bishop of Csesarea, in the fourth 
! century. He maintained a sub- 
ordination of persons in the 
godhead, which has subjected 
him to the charge of Arianism, 
though, as many think, unjust- 
ly. See Avians.^ 

EUSTATHIANS, a rigid 
denomination in the fourth cen- 
tury, so called from Eustathius, 
a monk. He prohibited mar- 



riage, the use of wine and licsh, 
and obliged his followers to quit 
all they had, as incompatible 
with the hopes of heaven. || 

EUTUCHITES, a kind of 
religious stoics in the third cen- 
tury, who held that our souls 
are placed in our bodies to hon- 
our the angels, who created 
them \ and that we ought to re- 
joice equally in all events, , be- 
cause to grieve, would be to 
dishonour our creators.^ 

EUTYCHIANS, a denomi- 
nation in the fifth century, so 
called from Eutyches, abbot of 
a certain convent of monks at 
Constantinople, and the very 
opposite to the Nestorians. He 
maintained, that there was only 
one nature in Jesus Christ. 
The divine nature, according 
to them, had so entirely \ swal- 
lowed up the human, that the 
latter could not be distinguish- 
ed : so that it was inferred our 
Lord had nothing of humanity 
but the appearance. See Jaco- 
bites. 

Eutychus began to propagate 
his opinions about the year 448, 
when he was rather advanced 
in years, and they were imme- 
diately condemned by a synod 
held by Flavian at Constantino- 
ple ; the next year they were 
justified by the council of Ephe- 
sus, and again condemned two 
years after by the council of 
Caledon ; such is the fallibility 
of human nature !^* 



• Calmet's Dictionary, vol. i. -J- Broughton. $ History of Religion, vol. iv, 
§ Mosheim, vol. i. p. 291. || Mosheim, vol. i. p. 313. 



*S Broughton, vol. ii. p. 532. 



** Mosheim, vol. i. p. 413, 



FAM 



80 



FIF 



F 



FaMILISTS, or family of 
Love, a denomination which ap- 
peared in Holland about the 
year 1555, and derive their or- 
igin from one Henry Nicholas, 
of Westphalia. He pretended 
that there was no knowledge of 
Christ, nor of the scriptures, 
but in his family. He quoted 
1 Cor. xiii. 9, 10. For we 
know but in part, and we proph- 
ecy in part ; but when that which 
is perfect is come, then that which 
is in part shall be done away; 
and hence inferred that the doc- 
trine of the apostles was imper- 
fect, and to be superseded by 
the more perfect revelation 
made to The Family of Love. 

This denomination taught, 
(1 .) That the essence of religion 
consisted in the feelings of di- 
vine love; and that it was a 
matter of indifference what o- 
pinions Christians entertained 
concerning points of faith, pro- 
vided their hearts burned with 
the sacred flame of piety and 
love. (2.) That the union of 
the soul with CI irist transforms 
it into the essence of the Deity. 
(3.) That the letter of the scrip- 
ture is useless ; and those sa- 
cred books ought to be inter- 
preted in a spiritual or allegor- 
ical manner. (4.) That it was 
lawful on s:>ine occasions to 
prevaricate in evidence. 

This sect appeared in Eng- 



land about the year 1580 j 
where, when their founder was 
discovered, their books were 
ordered to be publicly burnt, 
and the societv was dispersed. 
FARVONIANS, a branch of 
the Socinians ; so called from 
Farvonius, who flourished in the 
sixteenth century. He assert- 
ed, that Christ had been pro- 
duced out of nothing by the 
Supreme Being, before the cre- 
ation of the world ; and warn- 
ed his disciples against paying 
religious worship either to 
the Son or Spirit.f See Socin- 
ians 

FIFTH MONARCHY-MEN, 
a denomination which arose in 
the seventeenth century. They 
derived their name from main- 
taining that there will be ajifth 
universal monarchy under the 
personal reign of Jesus Christ 
upon earth. Their leader was 
Thomas Venner, a cooper, who, 
in his conventicle in Coleman 
Street, having warmed the pas- 
sions of his audience, sallied 
forth toward St. Paul's Church- 
Yard, on Sunday Jan. 6, 1660, 
determined to set up the new 
monarchy, and vainly expect- 
ing Jesus Christ from heaven 
to their support. The military 
weir called out against them, 
but it was three days before 
they were subdued, many being 
killed, and of the rest, Venner 



* \fosheim, vol. iv. p. 166, fcrouffbton, vol ii.p. 30. More's Mystery of 
Godliness, p. 356. Fulfilling of the Scriptures, vol. i. p. 166. 
| Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 291,2 



FLA 



81 



FRA 



and ten others were hanged in 
different parts of the city.* 

FLACIANS, the disciples of 
M. Flacius Illyricus in the 
sixteenth century ; who was a 
learned and zealous disciple of 
Luther, and one of the authors 
of the famous German Ecclesi- 
astical History, called Centurias 
Magdeburgensis. He maintain- 
ed that original sin is * the very 
substance of human nature.'! See 
Calvinists. 

FLAGELLANTS, a denom- 
ination which sprang up in Ita- 
ly in the year 1260, and was 
thence propagated through al- 
most all the countries of Eu- 
rope. They derive their name 
from the latin, jlageUo, to whip. 
The society that embraced this 
new discipline, ran in multi- 
tudes, composed of persons of 
both sexes, and of all ranks and 
ages, through the public streets, 
with whips in their hands, lash- 
ing their naked backs with as- 
tonishing severity, thinking to 
obtain the divine mercy for 
themselves and others, by their 
voluntary mortification and pe- 
nance. — This sect re-appeared 
in the fourteenth and fifteenth 
centuries,maintaining that their 
penance was of equal virtue 
with the sacraments ; that the 
forgiveness of "all sins was to 
be obtained thereby j that the 
law of Christ was soon to be 
abolished ; and that a new law, 
enjoining the baptism of blood, 
to be administered by w hipping, 



was to be substituted in its 
place.! 

FLANDRIANS. See Men- 
nonites. 

FLORINIANS, so called 
from Florinus, a branch of the 
Valentinians in the second cen- 
tury. See Valentinians. 

FRANCISCANS, an order 
of friars founded in 1209, by 
St. Francis of Assini, who had 
led a dissolute life, but a fit of 
sickness produced an entire 
change in his method of living ; 
and at the age of twenty one he 
solemnly determined to prac- 
tise the most ingorous self-de- 
nial ; and had the courage to 
support that resolution, without 
the least deviation, during a 
life of forty six years. Abso- 
lute poverty was his fundamen- 
tal rule, which he rigorously 
enjoined on all his followers. 
Some years afterwards, this 
rule was relaxed by the indul- 
gence of several popes ; but this 
occasioned a schism in the or- 
der, and divided them into two 
parties. Those who adhered 
strictly to the austere rules of 
their founder were called Frati- 
celli, or Little Brothers, which 
name Francis himself had as- 
sumed out of humility, and pre* 
scribed it to his followers. 
They were also called Spiritu- 
al, while the others were styled 
Brethren of the Community. 
This religious order acquired 
great reputation and influence ; 
and it is said that previous to 



* Mosheim, vol. iv p. 533. 

* Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 94, 206, %77. 

11 



f Ibid. p. 43. 



FRA 



82 



FRE 



the death of St. Francis it a- 
mounted to more than fifty 
thousand persons. The Fran- 
ciscans maintained that the Vir- 
gin Mary was horn without o- 
riginal sin. which the Domini- 
cans denying, occasioned a 
contention, which ended much 
to the disgrace of the latter,* 
See Dominicans. 

FRATICELLI, i. e. Little 
Brotlicrs, a sect which appeared 
in Italy about 1298, and spread 
all over Europe. They pretend- 
ed that ecclesiastics ought to 
have no possessions of their own. 
This term had been honourably 
applied, as we have seen, to the 
spiritual or stricter kind of 
Franciscans ; but, when used 
in reference to f heCatharists and 
Waldemc&j was considered as a 
term of reproach and ridicule.f 

FRATRES ALB ATI, or 
Whits Brethren. They deriv- 
ed their name and origin from 
a certain priest, who, in the 
fifteenth certury, descended 
from the Alps, arrayed in a 
white garment, and accompani- 
ed by a prodigious number of 
both sexes, who alter the exam- 
ple of their chief were clothed 
in white linen. They went in 

a kind of procession through 
several province**, foilowinj 

cross, which their left far had 
erected like ft standard. The 
new chief exhorted his follow- 
er to appease the anger of an 
offended deity ; emaciated his 
body by voluntary artsof mor- 

• Motheim, Eccles. Hist. vol. Hi. p 
Italy, vol. ii. ]). VJ7. 

f Broughton, vol. i. p. 4?7. 
} Moshcim, vol. III. p. 122. 



tification and penance ; and at- 
tempted to excite Europe to 
renew the crusades4 

FREETHINKERS, an ap- 
pellation assumed by certain 
persons, who disbelieved Chris- 
tianity, and boasted their free- 
dom from religious prejudices. 
See D£ist$ 
*FREETHINKING Chris- 
tians, a name lately adopted 
by a society which ; rose in the 
year 1799, and has ever since 
regularly assembled in London, 
calling itself a church of God, 
founded on the principles of 
free inquiry. Their first mem- 
bers separated from a congre- 
gation of trinitarian dissenters 
in Parliament Court Chapel, 
Bishopsgate Street; they re- 
jected the doctrine of the trin- 
ity, the atonement, and oth- 
er points of Calvinism ; then 
the sacraments and the imma- 
teriality of the soul ; and lastly, 
the inspiration of the scriptures 
and public worship; for they 
have neither singing nor pray- 
er in their assemblies, and re- 
gard the bible only as an au- 
thentic history. 

These freethinking Christians 
readily admit that, since their 
fiivi liflgati :i body, their 

sentiments have undergone con- 
siderable alteration on points of 
primal y importance ; but they 
contend that this is the natural 
cotadqueitce of free inquiry ; 
that men who had heretofore 
been the slaves of errou/, could 
192. Classical Tour through 



FRE 



83 



FRE 



not but advance in the attain- 
ment of truth, after adopting a 
system which left thought un- 
restrained, and conscience free ; 
and they are still ready to re- 
nounce any opinion, whenever 
it shall appear to them untena- 
ble. In consequence, their pub- 
lic meetings, which are mostly 
on Sunday forenoons, resemble 
rather a debating society, than 
a christian church. The el- 
der opens the meeting by stat- 
ing the subject for considera- 
tion, and, at his call, several 
speakers successively address 
the meeting. It is not unusual 
to hear among them a differ- 
ence of opinion ; and they are 
all prompt to controvert the 
current doctrines of the chris- 
tian world, to show their dis- 
sent from all sects and parties, 
and their aversion to the cler- 
gy, and to christian ministers 
of all denominations. 

This society was little known 
till the year 1808, when they 
advertised their intention of 
publicly inquiring into the n ex- 
istence of a being, called the 
devil" So singular a notice 
could not fail of drawing a con- 
siderable number of persons to 
their assembly, especially on a 
Sunday morning. The land- 
lord of the house at which they 
met, in the Old ' Change, alarm- 
ed for his personal security, ob- 
liged them to remove, and they 
engaged the large room at the 
Paul's Head, Catcaton street. 
Here the magistracy interfer- 



ed ; but as they had taken the 
precaution to license themselves 
under the toleration act, noth- 
ing could be done legally to re- 
strain them. Since then tiiey 
have set up a periodical publi- 
cation under the title of the 
" Freethinking Christian's Ma- 
gazine," in which they profess 
to disseminate christian, moral, 
and philosophical truth; and 
they have erected a handsome 
meeting-house in the crescent 
behind Jewin Street, Cripple- 
gate, where this weekly as- 
sembly, consisting of members 
and strangers, is said to amount 
to between four and five hun- 
dred persons. 

The following appears to be 
the latest summary of their 
opinions. " The christian re- 
ligion," they say, " consists in 
the worship of one God, eternal, 
just, and good ; and in an obe- 
dience to the commands of Je- 
sus, his messenger on earth, 
who taught the wicked to re- 
pent of the errour of their ways, 
and that God was ever ready to 
receive them. Forms and or- 
dinances, parade and show, are 
no parts of his system ; but vir- 
tue and purity of heart can alone 
prepare man for a blissful ex- 
istence beyond the grave : the 
wisdom and hope of which were 
furnished by the resurrection of 
the teacher of their faith, a 
member of earth, and an heir of 
immortality"* 

FREE-WILLERS, Armin- 
ians, characterized by their ad- 



* Freethinking Christian's Macr. The True Design of the Church of Gocl, 
^c. Evens' Sketch, 13th ed.p. 311, S;c. 



FRE 



84 



FRE 



herence to the doctrine of Free- 
will, as implying a self-deter- 
mining power in the mind. Dr. 
Clarke defines liberty to be * a 
power of self-motion, or self-de- 
termination,' which definition 
implies that in our volitions we 
are not acted upon. Activity, 
and being acted upon, are incom- 
patible with one another. In 
whatever instances, therefore, it 
is truly said of us that we act, in 
those instances we cannot be act- 
ed upon. A being, in receiving a 
change of its state from the ex- 
ertion of an adequate force, is 
not an agent. Man, therefore, 
could not be an agent, were all 
his volitions derived from any 
force, or the effects of any me- 
chanical causes. In this case, 
it would be no more true that he 
ever acts, than it is true of a ball, 
that it acts when struck by an- 
other ball. To prove that a 
self-determining power belongs 
to the will, it is urged that we 
ourselves are conscious of pos- 
sessing such liberty. If e blame 
and condemn ourselves lor our 
actions ; have an inward sense 
of guilt, shame, and remorse of 
Conscience* which leeiings are 
inconsistent with the scheme of 
emit} . WY nnm itnnlHjr ngi im 
that some actions deserve praise, 
and others blame ; fcJr which 
there would he no foundation. If 
we were invincibly determined 
in every volition. Approbation 
and blame arc consequent upon 
free actions only. It is an ar- 



ticle in the christian faith, that 
God will render rewards and 
punishments to men for their 
actions in this life. We can- 
not maintain his justice in this 
particular, if men's actions be 
necessary, either in their own 
nature, or by divine decrees and 
influence. Activity and self- 
determining power arc also al- 
leged to be the foundation of 
all morality, and the greatest 
possible happiness.* See JVfe- 
cessarians. 

FRENCH PROPHETS. 
They first appeared in Dauphi- 
ny and Vivarais. In the year 
1688, five or six hundred pro- 
testants, of both sexes, gave 
themselves out to be prophets, 
and inspired of the Holy Ghost, 
and they soon amounted to ma- 
ny thousands. They had strange 
fits, which came upon them with 
tremblings and faint ings, as in 
a swoon, which made them reel 
and stagger till they dropped. 
They beat themselves, fell on 
their backs, shut their eyes, 
and heaved their breasts, as in 
fits : and w lien they came out 
of these trances said, they BOW 
the heavens open, the angels, 
paradise, and hell; and then be- 
gan to prophesy. 

The hurden rtf their discours- 
es was, Repent.ameml your lives: 
the end of all things draweth mgh ! 
The walls of their assemblies, 
and, when in the open air, the 
hills rebounded with their loud 
cries for mercy : and with im- 



• Sec T,orke on Free "Will. Letters between Clarke and Leibnitz. The 
respondent- between P;\s. Priestley and Price. 



FRE 



85 



FRI 



precations against the priests, 
the church, and the pope, with 
predictions of the approaching 
fall of popery. 

In the year 1706, three or four 
of these prophets came over in- 
to England, and brought their 
prophetic spirit with them, 
which discovered itself by exta- 
cies, agitations, and inspira- 
tions under them, as it had done 
in France : and they propagat- 
ed the like spirit to others, so 
that before the vear was out, 
there were two or three hund- 
red of these prophets in and a- 
bout London, ol both sexes, of 
all ages ; men, women, and chil- 
dren ; and they had delivered 
four or five hundred prophetic 
warnings. 

The great thing they pretend- 
ed by their spirit was, to give 
warning of the near approach of 
the kingdom of God, the happy 
times of the church, the mille- 
nium-state. Their message was, 
that the grancl jubilee, the ac- 
ceptable year of the Lord,the ac- 
complishment of those numerous 
passages in scripture concern- 
ing the new heavens, and the new 
earth, &c. was now even at the 
door — that this great work was 
to be wrought on the part of 
man by spiritual arms only, 
proceeding from the mouths of 
those who should, by inspira- 
tion of the Spirit, be sent forth 
in great numbers, to labour in 
the vineyard — that this mission 
of his servants should be wit- 
nessed to by signs and wonders 



from heaven,by a deluge of judg- 
ments on the wicked throughout 
the world ; as famine, pesti- 
lence, earthquakes, &c. — that 
the exterminating angels should 
root out the tares, and leave up- 
on earth only good corn ; and 
that the works of men being 
thrown down, there should be 
but one Lord, one faith, one 
heart, and one voice, among 
mankind. They declared, that 
all these great things would be 
manifest over the whole earth 
within the term of three years. 

These prophets also pretend- 
ed to the gift of languages, of 
discerning the secrets of the 
heart ; the power of conferring 
the same spirit on others, and the 
gift of healing by the laying on 
of hands. To prove that they 
were really inspired by the Holy 
Ghost, they alleged the com- 
plete joy and satisfaction they 
experienced, the spirit of pray- 
er which was poured forth up- 
on them, and the answer of 
their prayers by the Most 
High.^ 

FRIENDS, or Quakers, a 
religious society which began to 
be distinguished about the mid- 
dle of the seventeenth century. 
Their doctrines were first pro- 
mulgated in England,by George 
Fox, about the year 1647, for 
which he was imprisoned at 
Nottingham, in the year 1649, 
and the year following at Derby. 
The appellation of Quakers was 
given them by way of contempt : 
some say on account of their 



* Chauncey's Works, vol. iii. p. 2—39. Prophetical Warnings of the Eternal 
Spirit. A Brand snatched from the burning", &c. 



FRI 



8(5 



FRI 



tremblings under the impression 
of divine things ; but they say, 
it was first given them by one 
of the magistrates who commit- 
ted G. Fox to prison, on ac- 
count of his bidding him and 
those about him, to tremble at 
the word of the Lord. 

From their first appearance, 
they suffered much persecution. 
In New England they were 
treated with peculiar severity, 
though the settlers themselves 
had but lately fled from perse- 
cution* 

During these sufferings they 
applied to King Charles II. for 
relief, who in 1661 granted a 
mandamus, to put a stop to 
them. Neither were the good 
offices of this prince in their fa- 
vour confined to the colonies; 
for in 1672 he released under 
the great seal four hundred of 
these suffering people, who were 
imprisoned in Great Britain. 

In 1681 Charles II. granted 
to William Penn the province 
of Pennsylvania. Penn's treaty 
witli the Indians, and the liber- 
ty of conscience which he grant- 
ed to all denominations, even 
those which had persecuted 
His own, do honour to his mem- 
ory. 

In the reign of James II. the 
Friends, in common with other 
English dissenters, were re- 
lieved by the suspension of 
the penal laws. BUl it was 
not till the reign of William 
and Mary, that they obtained 
any thing like a proper legal 
protection. 

An art was made in the year 

* CUrid 



1696, which, with a few excep- 
tions, allowed to their affirma- 
tion the legal force of an oath, 
and provided a less oppressive 
mode for recovering tithes un- 
der a certain amount; which 
provisions under the reign of 
George I. were made perpetu- 
al. For refusing to pay tithes, 
&c. however, they are still lia- 
ble to suffer in the exchequer 
and ecclesiastical court, both in 
Great Britain and Ireland. 

The doctrines of the society 
of Friends have been variously 
represented, and it is too much 
to suppose so large a denomi- 
nation can be perfectly unani- 
mous. The following account, 
however, has been drawn up 
by one of themselves, and near- 
ly in the words of their own 
most approved writers. 

1. They believe that God is 
one : and that this one God is 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
as in Matt, xxviii. 19.* To 
the assertion that they deny 
the Trinity. Wm. Venn an- 
swers, " Nothing less : they do 
believe in the holy Three, or 
the trinity of Father, Word, 
and Spirit, according to the 
scriptures; but they are very 
tender of quitting scripture 
terms and phrases for school* 
men's ; such as distinct and 
separate persons and subsis- 
tences, K(\ and they judge that 
a curious inquiry into those 
high and divine relations, 
though never so great truths in 
themselves, tends little to god- 
liness, and less to peace/' 

2. They helicvc that Christ is 



FRI 



37 



FRI 



both God and man in wonder- 
ful union ; that he suffered for 
our suh ation, was raised again 
for our justification, and ever 
liveth to make intercession for 
us. And in reply to the charge, 
that the Quakers deny Christ 
to be God, Wm. Penn says, M A 
most untrue and uncharitable 
censure : for their great and 
characteristic principle is, that 
Christ, as the divine Word, 
lighteth the souls of all men who 
come into the world, with a 
spiritual and saving light, (ac- 
cording to John i. 9 — 12.) 
which none but the Creator of 
souls can do.' 5 

3. They believe the scriptures 
to be of divine authority ,gi ven by 
the inspiration of God through 
holy men : that they are a dec- 
laration of those things most 
surely believed by the primitive 
Christians ; and that they con- 
tain the mind and will of God, 
and are his commands to us : 
in that respect they are his dec- 
laratory word, and therefore are 
obligatory on us, and are pro- 
fitable for doctrine, reproof, &c. 
They love and prefer them be- 
fore all books in the world, re- 
jecting all principles and doc- 
trines that are repugnant there- 
unto. " Nevertheless,' 5 says 
Barclay, " because they are on- 
ly a declaration of the fountain, 
and not the fountain itself, thev 
arc not to be esteemed the prin- 
cipal ground of all truth and 
knowledge, nor the primary 
rule of faith and manners ; but 
a secondary rule, subordinate to 
the spirit, from whom they have 



all their excellence and certain- 
ty." 

They object to calling the 
scriptures the word of God, as 
being a name applied to Christ 
by the sacred writers them- 
selves, though too often mis- 
understood by those who extol 
scripture above the immediate 
teaching of Christ's spirit in 
the heart ; whereas without the 
last, the first cannot be profita- 
bly understood. 

4. On the original and present 
state of man, Wm. Penn says, 
" The world began with inno- 
cency ; all was then good that 
God had made ; but this happy 
state lasted not long ; for man, 
lost the divine image, the wis- 
dom, power, and purity he was 
made in ,• by which, being no 
longer fit for paradise, he was 
expelled that garden as a poor 
vagabond, to wander in the 
earth." Respecting the state of 
man under the fall, Barclay ob- 
serves, " Not to dive into the 
curious notions which many 
have concerning the condition 
of Adam before the fall, all agree 
in this, that he thereby came to 
a very great loss, not only in the 
things which related to the out- 
ward man, but in regard of that 
true fellowship and communion 
he had with God. So that 
though we do not ascribe any 
whit of Adam's guilt to men, 
until they make it theirs by the 
like acts of disobedience ; yet 
we cannot suppose that men 
who are come of Adam natur- 
ally, can have any good thing 
in their nature, which he, from 



FRI 



88 



FRI 



whom they derive llicir nature, 
had not himself to communicate 
to them. And whatever real 
good any man doth, it procecd- 
eth not from his nature, as the 
son of Adam ; But from the seed 
of God in him, as a new visita- 
tion of life, in order to bring 
him out of his natural condi- 
tion." 

5. On man's redemption 
through Christ. They believe 
that God who made man had 
pity on him ; and in his infinite 
goodness and wisdom provided 
a mean for the restoration of 
fallen man, by a nobler and 
more excellent Adam, promised 
to be born of a woman j and 
which, by the dispensation of 
the Son of God in the flesh, 
was personally and fully ac- 
complished in him, as man's 
Saviour and Redeemer. 

Respecting the doctrines of 
satisfaction -dn&justification, they 
say, We believe that Jesus 
Christ wits our holy sacrifice, 
atonement, and propitiation — 
that God is just in forgiving 
true penitents upon the credit 
of that holy offering — that what 
he did and suffered, satisfied 
ami pleased God, and was for 
the sake of fallen man who had 
displeased him. Fenru 

u. On immediate ion. 

They believe that the saving, 
certain, and necessary knowl- 
edge of God, can only be ac- 
quired by the inward, immedi- 
ate revelation of God's spirit. 
They prove this from 1 Cor. ii. 
11, 12 j x i i . S. Heb. viii. 10. 
M here the law of God ispui in- 



to the mind, and written in the 
heart, there the object of faith 
and revelation of God is in- 
ward, immediate, and objec- 
tive : " hut these divine revela- 
tions/ 5 says Barclay, ••as they do 
not, so neither can they at any 
time contradict the scripture 
testimony, or right and sound 
reason." 

7. On universal and sav : : % 
light. They affirm, that « God 
hath given to every man a mea- 
sure of the light of his own Son, 
(John i. 9.) and that God by 
this light invites, calls, and 
strives with every man, in or- 
der to save him ; which as it is 
received, works the salvation of 
all, even of those who are ig- 
norant of tiie death of Christ, 
and of Adam's fall : but that 
this light may be resisted, in 
which case God is said to be 
resisted and rejected, and Christ 
to be again crucified : and to 
those who thus resist and refuse 
him he becomes their condem- 
nation." 

8. 0?i perfection and perse- 
re ranee. They assert that as 
many as do not resist this light, 
become holy and spiritual ; 
bringing forth all those blessed 
fruits which are acceptable to 
God : and by this holy birth, (to 
wit, Jesus Christ formed within 
us, and working in us,) the body 
of death and sin is crucified, 
and we are freed from actually 
transgressing the law of God. 
And the) entertain worthier no- 
tions of God, than to limit the 
operations of his grace to a 
partial cleausing of the soul 






FRI 



89 



FRI 



from sin, even in this life. (Matt, 
v. 48. 1 John ii. 14 j iii. 3/) Yet 
this perfection still admits of a 
growth ; and there remains al- 
ways a possibility of sinning, 
where the mind does not most 
diligently and watchfully attend 
to the Lord. 

9. Concerning worship. They 
consider as obstructions to pure 
worship, all forms which divert 
the attention of the mind from 
the secret influences of the Holy 
Spirit. Yet, although true wor- 
ship is not confined to time and 
place, they think it incumbent 
on christians to meet often to- 
gether, in testimony of their de- 
pendence on their heavenly Fa- 
ther, and for a renewal of their 
spiritual strength. When thus 
met, they believe it to be their 
duty patiently to wait for the 
arising of that life which, by 
subduing those thoughts, pro- 
duces an inward silence, and 
therein affords a true sense of 
their condition ; believing even 
a single sigh, arising from such 
a sense of our infirmities and of 
the need we have of divine help, 
to be more acceptable to God, 
than any performance, however 
specious, originating in the will 
of man. 

10. On the ministry. As by 
the light, or gift of God, all true 
knowledge in things spiritual is 
received, so by the same, as it 
is manifested in the heart, every 
true minister of the gospel is 
ordained and prepared for the 
work. Moreover, they who 



have this authority, may and 
ought to preach the gospel, 
though without human commis- 
sion or literature.* (1 Pet. iv. 
10, 11.) Barclay. 

11. On baptism and the sup- 
per. They believe that as there 
is one Lord and one faith, so 
there is one baptism ; which is 
not the putting away the filth of 
the flesh, but the answer of a 
good conscience before God. And 
this baptism is a pure and spir- 
itual thing, by which we are 
buried with him, that being 
washed and purged from our 
sins, we may walk in newness 
of life ; of which the baptism of 
John was a figure, which was 
commanded for a time, and not 
to continue forever. (Matt. iii. 
11.) Hence it follows that the 
baptism which Christ command- 
ed, (Matt, xxviii. 19.) must re- 
late to his own baptism, and not 
to that of John : to say it must 
be understood of water is but to 
beg the question, the text being 
wholly silent thereon. — With 
respect to the other rite, termed 
the Lord's supper, they believe 
that the communion of the body 
and blood of Christ is spiritual, 
which is the participation of his 
flesh and blood, by which the 
inward man is daily nourished 
in the hearts of those in whom 
Christ dwells ; and that this is 
most agreeable to the doctrine 
of Christ concerning this mat- 
ter. (John vi. 53, 54.) Barclay. 

12. On the resurrection. They 
believe the resurrection, ac- 



* They allow females to preach, who are called thereto and moved by the 
spirit. 

12 



FK1 



90 



Fill 



cording to the scripture, not 
only from sin, but also from 
death and the grave. They 
believe that as our Lord Je- 
sus was raised from the dead 
by the power of the Father, and 
was the first fruits of the resur- 
rection, so every man in his own 
order shall arise; they that have 
(Iol well to the resurrection of 
cttrna! life, but they that have 
done evil to everlasting condem- 
nation. And as the celesti- 
al bodies do far exceed the ter- 
restrial, so they expect our 
spiritual bodies in the resurrec- 
tion shall fur excel what our 
bodies now are. (Penn and 
SewtlLj 

Having treated of the princi- 
ples of religion as professed by 
the Friends, we now proceed to 
notice some tenets which more 
immediately relate to their con- 
duct among men. 

1. On oaths and war. — With 
respect to the former of these 
they abide literally by these 
words of our Saviour: Bull 
say unto you* swear not at all ; 
neither by heaven, §c. but It I 
your communication be yea, yea; 
nay, nay :Jhr whatsoever is more 
than these comcth of evil. (M 
\. 34 — 37.) 

To prove thai war is no! law- 
ful to christians, they lik< 

, e thus -. — (i.) Christ com- 
mands* thai \\c should love pur 
enemies. ( ■:.) The apostle James 
testifies that wars and str 
come from the : usts which war 
in the members of carnal men. 
(o.) The apostle Paul admon- 
tians that they de- 



fend not themselves, neither a- 
venge, by rendering evil for e- 
vil ; but give place unto wrath, 
because vengeance is the Lord's. 
(4.) The prophets Isaiah and 
Micah have expressly foretold 
that in the mountain of the house 
of the Lord, Christ shall judge 
the nations ; and then they shall 
beat their swords into plough- 
shares, §"C. and there shall be 
none to hurt nor kill in the holy 
mountain of the Lord. (Barclay.) 
2. On deportment — (l.)They 
affirm that it is not lawful for 
christians either to give or re- 
ceive such flattering titles of 
honour, as your Holiness, your 
Majesty, your Excellency, kc. ; 
because these titles are no part 
of that obedience which is due 
to magistrates or superiours ; 
neither doth the giving them 
add to, or the not giving them 
diminish from, that subjection 
we owe them. But they do not 
object to employ those titles 
which are descriptive of their 
station or office ; such as king, 
prime, duke. carl, bishop, kc. 
Neither do they think it right 
to use what are commonly cal- 
led compliments; such as your 
most obedient servant. <\r. Such 
customs have led christians to 
lie ; so thai to use falsehood is 
now accounted civility. They 
disuse those names of the months 
and days, which, ha\ ing been 
given in honoui of the heroes 
and false gods of the heathen, 
originated in their Battery or 
superstition: they like\v : sc con- 
demn the custom of speaking to 
a single person in the plural 



FRI 



91 



FRI 



number, as having also arisen 
irom motives of adulation. — (2.) 
They affirm that it is not lawful 
for christians to kneel, or pros- 
trate themselves to any man, or 
to bow the body, or to uncover 
the head to them ; because these 
are the outward signs of our 
adoration towards God. (3.) 
They affirm that it is not lawful 
for christians to use superflui- 
ties in apparel, which are of no 
use, save for ornament and van- 
ity. (4.) That it is not lawful to 
use games, sports, or plays a- 
mong christians, under the no- 
tion of recreation, which do not 
agree with christian gravity 
and sobriety, Thev allege that 
the chief end of religion is to 
redeem men from the spirit and 
vain conversation of the world, 
and to lead them into inward 
communion with God ; there- 
fore every thing ought to be 
rejected that wastes our pre- 
cious time, and diverts the heart 
from that evangelical spirit 
which is the ornament of a 
christian. 

With regard to religious lib- 
erty. they hold that the rights 
of conscience are sacred and un- 
alienable, subject only to the 
control of the Deity, who has 
not given authority to any man, 
or body of men, to compel anoth- 
er to his religion, f Barclay. J 

3. On their church govern- 
ment, or discipline. To effect the 
salutary purposes of discipline, 
they have established monthly, 
quarterly, and yearly meetings. 
A monthly meeting is usually 
composed of several particular 



congregations, situated within 
a convenient distance from each 
other. Its business is to pro- 
vide for the subsistence of the 
poor, (for they maintain their 
own poor,) and for the educa- 
tion of their offspring ; to ex- 
amine persons desiring to be 
admitted into membership ; to 
deal with disorderly members, 
and if irreclaimable, to disown 
them. (Matt, xviii. 15 — 17.). 

All marriages are proposed 
to these meetings for their con- 
currence, which is granted, if 
upon inquiry, the parties ap- 
pear clear of other engage- 
ments, and if they also have 
the consent of their parents or 
guardians; without which no 
marriages are allowed : for this 
society has always scrupled to 
acknowledge the exclusive au- 
thority of the priests to marry. 
Their marriages are solemnized 
in a public meeting for wor- 
ship ; and the monthly meeting 
keeps a record of them ; as al- 
so of the births and burials of 
its members. This society 
does not allow its members to 
sue each other at law ; it there- 
fore enjoins all to end their dif- 
ferences by speedy and impartial 
arbitration : and if any refuse 
to act according to these rules, 
they are disowned. Several 
monthly meetings compose a 
quarterly meeting, to which 
they send representatives, and 
to which appeals lie from the 
monthly meetings. The year- 
ly meeting has a general super- 
intendence of the society in the 
country in which it is establish- 



GAL 



92 



GAL 



ed ; and as particular exigen- 
cies arise, makes such regula- 
tions as appear to be requisite ; 
and appeals from the quarterly 
meetings are here finally deter- 
mined. There are also meet- 
ings of the female Friends, held 
at the same times and places 
(in separate apartments) to reg- 



ulate matters relative to their 
own sex. There are likewise 
meetings for sufferings, compos- 
ed of members chosen at the 
quarterly meetings. They were 
so called in times of persecu- 
tion, and are now continued to 
superintend the general con- 
cerns of the society.* 



G 



GAIAXITiE, a denomina- 
tion which sprang from the Eu- 
tychiaiis. They derive their 
name from Gaian, a bishop of 
Alexandria, in the sixth centu- 
ry, who is said to have denied 
that Jesus Christ, after the hy- 
postatical union, was subject to 
any of the infirmities of human 
nature. 

GALILEANS, or Gallax- 
ites,| a political sect, or rath- 
er party among the Jews, the 
followers of Judas, a native of 
Gaalan in Galilee, who in the 
tenth year of Jesus Christ ex- 
cited his countrymen, the Gali- 
leans, and many other Jews, to 
•is, and venture upon all 
extremities, rather than pay lii- 
butc to the Romans. The prin- 
ciples he instilled into his pa 
vvr >nlj that they were a 

nation, and OUghl not t<» be 
in subjection to an\ other : bu1 
that they were the eled of God, 



that he alone was their govern- 
our, and that therefore they 
ought not to submit to any or- 
dinance of man. Though Ju- 
das was unsuccessful, and his 
party in their very first attempt 
was entirely routed and dispers- 
ed ; yet so deeply had he infused 
his own enthusiasm into their 
minds, that they never rested, 
until in their own destruction 
they involved the city and tem- 
ple. 

GALLICAN CHURCH. 
Notwithstanding the establish- 
ed religion of France is Roman 
Catholic, and the king of 
France is called eldest son of the 
church, the Gallic an clergy have 
ever been more exempt from 
the temporal dominion of the 
pope than those of any other 
country, and that in two res- 
pects : (l.) The pope has not 
authority to command anything 
in which the civil laws of the 



• Scwcll's history of the people called Quakers, 8vo eel. vol. i. p. 4' 
vol. ii. p. 5.V2. R. Claridge's life Mid posthumous Works, p. 414 — 442. 



.45— 
_ , p. 414—442. Perm's 
50; vo! ii. p. 783— 878. Barclay's Works, 

folio edit. p. 84 — 876 A Sum Diary of the II: trine, &c. of the Friends, 

p. 4 — 21. J> -■ -modern n '^representations of Friends, 

p. SI — 9$. (larks": itUHC of Quakd 

f Acts v. 37. l>ict. in Jvdas, vol. i. new ed. 



GAL 



93 



GAL 



kingdom are concerned. — (2.) 
Though the pope's supremacy 
is owned in spiritual matters, 
yet his power is limited and 
regulated hy the decrees and ca- 
nons of ancient councils receiv- 
ed in the realm. 

In the established church, 
Jansenists were very numerous. 
The bishoprics and prebendaries 
were all in the gift of the king ; 
and no other catholic state, ex- 
cept Italy, had so numerous a 
clergy as France, among whom 
were eighteen archbishops, and 
a hundred and eleven bishops. 

Since the repeal of the edict 
of Nantz, in the seventeenth 
century, the protestants have 
suffered much from persecu- 
tion : but a law, which did great 
honour to Lewis XVI. late king 
of France, gave to his non-Ro- 
man Catholic subjects, as they 
were called, all the civil advan- 
tages of their catholic brethren. 

The French clergy amounted 
to one hundred and thirty thou- 
sand, the higher orders of which 
enjoyed immense revenues ; but 
the cures, or great body of 
acting clergy, seldom possess- 
ed more than about 30/. a year. 
The clergy, as a body, inde- 
pendent of their tithes, pos- 
sessed a revenue, arising from 
property in land, amounting to 
five millions sterling annually : 
at the same time they were ex- 
empt from taxation. Before 
the levelling system had taken 
place, the clergy signified to 
the commons the instructions 
of their constituents, to contri- 



bute to the exigencies of the 
state in equal proportion with 
the other citizens. Not con- 
tented with this offer, the tithes 
and revenues of the clergy were 
taken away ; in lieu of which, 
it was agreed to grant a certain 
stipend to the different ministers 
of religion : but the possessions 
of the church were considered 
as national property by a de- 
cree of the constituent assem- 
bly.* The religious orders; 
viz. the communities of monks 
and nuns, possessed immense 
landed estates ; and after hav- 
ing abolished the orders, the 
assembly seized the estates for 
the use of the nation : the gates 
of the cloisters were now thrown 
open. The next step of the as- 
sembly was to establish what is 
called the civil constitution of the 
clergy. This decree, though 
opposed with energetic elo- 
quence, was passed, and was 
soon after followed by another, 
obliging the clergy to swear to 
maintain their civil constitution. 
Every artifice and every men- 
ace was used to induce them to 
take the oath : great numbers, 
however, refused, (among whom 
were a hundred and thirty 
eight bishops,) and were driv- 
en from their sees and par- 
ishes ; three hundred of the 
priests being massacred in one 
day in one city. All the other 
pastors who adhered to their 
religion were either sacrificed 
or compelled to seek a refuge 
among foreign nations.f 

Notwithstanding this, May 



* Encyclopaedia, vol. xvi. p. 130. f Banners UhU of the CI 



GAL 



94 



GAU 



28, 1795, a decree was obtained 
for the freedom of religious 
worship, and in the following 
June,the churches in Paris were 
opened with great ceremony. 
The theophilanthropists, head- 
ed by Paine, attempted to con- 
vert the people from atheism 
to a popular kind of deism, 
though with small and tempo- 
rary success ; and they soon 
vanished from the country. See 
Theophilanthropisis. 

Buonaparte was an avowed 
friend to religious toleration, 
and showed in many cases a 
partiality to the protectants, and 
a great antipathy to the catho- 
lic priests, whom he justly sus- 
pected inimical to his authority. 
The protestant religion, how- 
ever, did not spread, the people 
being so deeply tinctured with 
infidelity as to show a total in- 
difference to religion, while at 
the same time they were satiat- 
ed with infidelity, so that they 
seem to have banished the sub- 
ject from their thoughts.* 

I pon the late restoration of 
the Bourbons, the Roman Cath- 
olic religion has been re-estab- 
lished with all its pomp and 

endow. Ai the same time, 
we learn* thai the protestant 
religion is far from ha\ ing been 
annihilated. II mid reds ofpro- 

tant ministers, and thou- 
sands of believers ia protestant- 
ism being found in thai commu- 
nity in the south of FraiK 



though it is said by some, that 
they are much declined in zeal 
and purity, both of doctrine and 
manners.! 

GAULANITES. See Gali- 
leans. 

GAURS, or Guebres, a sect 
in Persia, who pretended to be 
the successors of the ancient 
magi, the followers of Zoroas- 
ter. Though said to be nu- 
merous, they are tolerated in 
but few places. A combustible 
ground, about ten miles distant 
from Baku, a city in the north 
of Persia, is the scene of their 
devotions, where arc several 
small temples : in one of which 
the Gacbres pretend to pre- 
serve the sacred flame of the 
universal fire, which rises from 
the end of a large hollow cane, 
stuck into the ground, resem- 
bling a lamp burning with pure 
spirits ; or rather similar to 
the gas lights now exhibited in 
many parts of our country. 

This religion was founded by 
Zoroaster, who lived about the 
year of the world 2860, and 
taught his followers to worship 
God only under the form of 
fire; considering the bright- 
ness, purity, and incorruptibil- 
ity of that element, as hearing 
the most perfect resemblance 
to the nature of thr good Dei- 
ty ; whih* he considered dark- 
ness to be emblematic of the 
evil principle.]: 

Zoroaster compiled a book for 



fcfonthlj Mag. vol vi'i. j) 129. | I real Magazine, 1814, p. 399. 
( M i called Oromasdes, and 
ril f .\lii-;n,..n. id, that the ancient Persians held a co- 
two prii say, that the evil principle was 



GAU 



95 



GISO 



the use of the priests, who were to 
explain it to the public at large. 
This book was called the xcnd ; 
i. e. a kindler ofJtre 9 because it 
was for the use of those who 
worshipped the fire ; but the al- 
legorical meaning was to kin- 
dle the fire of religion in their 
hearts. In this book there are 
so many passages taken out of 
the old testament, that some 
learned men have supposed the 
author was a Jew. He gives 
almost the same account of the 
creation of the world, and of 
the ancient patriarchs, as we 
find recorded in scripture. He 
enjoins, i^elatirig to clean and 
unclean beasts, the same as was 
done by Moses, and in the same 
manner orders the people to pay 
tithes to the priests. The rest 
of the book contains the life of 
the author, his pretended vis- 
ions, the methods he used in or- 
der to establish his religion, 
and concludes with exhortations 
to obedience. Yet, notwith- 
standing the striking similari- 
ties between the zend and the 
laws of Moses, it will not fol- 
low from hence that Zoroaster 
was a Jew. The Chaldeans 
and Persians were inquisitive 
people ; they even sent students 
to India and Egypt ; and, when 
the Jews were in a state of cap- 



tivity among them, they would 
naturally inquire into the mys- 
teries of their religion. 

GAZARES, a denomination 
which appeared about the year 
1197, at Gazare, a town of Dal- 
matian They held almost the 
same opinions with the Albi- 
genses; but their distinguish- 
ing tenet w as, that no human 
power had a right to sentence 
men to death for any crime 
whatever. 

^GENTILES, a term which 
the Jews applied to all foreign- 
ers j so the Greeks called all 
other nations barbarians. 

GENTOOS. See Hindoos. 

GEORGIANS. Seelberians. 

*GLASSITES, the follow- 
ers of Mr. John Glass of Perth. 
He was a minister of the es- 
tablished church at Tealing, 
near Dundee, but expelled for 
preaching against the Scotch 
league and covenant, and main- 
taining the pure spirituality of 
- Christ-s kingdom, with some 
other points afterwards taught 
by Sandeman. (See Sandema- 
nians.J His principal work is 
entitled, ' The Testimony of the 
King of Martyrs.* 

GNOSIMACHI, the pro- 
fessed enemies to the Gnosis, 
i. e. the speculative knowledge 
of Christianity. They rested 



created out of darkness, and that Oromasdes first subsisted alone ; that by him 
the light and darkness were created ; and that in the composition of this world 
good and evil are mixed together, and so shall continue till the end of all things, 
when each shall be separated and reduced to its own sphere. Others have en- 
deavoured to account for the origin of the prince of darkness thus : '* Oro- 
masdes," say they, " said once within his mind, c How shall my power appear, 
if there be nothing to oppose me ?' This reflection called Ahriman into being, 
who thenceforward opposed all the designs of God ; and thereby, in spite of 
himself, contributes to his glory." See Heckfcrd on Religions, pj 109. 



GNO 



96 



GNO 



wholly on good works, calling 
it a useless labour to seek for 
science in the scriptures. In 
short, they Contended for the 
practice of morality in all sim- 
plicity, and blamed those, who 
aimed at a deeper insight into 
the mysteries of religion. They 
were the reverse of the Gnos- 
tics. — See the following arti- 
cle 

' GNOSTICS. This denom- 
ination sprang up in the first 
century, as is supposed among 
the disciples of Simon Magus, 
who united the principles of his 
philosophy, with those of Chris- 
tianity ; and were distinguish- 
ed by the appellation of Gnos- 
tics, from their boasting of be- 
ing able to restore mankind to 
the knowledge (ywo-t$) of the 
Supreme Being, which had 
been lost in the world. This 
party was not conspicuous for 
its numbers or reputation be- 
fore the time of Adrian. It de- 
rii es its origin from the oriental 
philosophy.* The hypothesis 
of a soul distinct from the body, 
which had pre-existed in an an- 
gelic state, and was (for some 
offence committed in that stale) 
degraded and confined to the 
body as a punishment, had been 
the great doctrine of the east- 
ern sages from time immemo- 
rial. Not being able to con- 
ceive how -evil in so great an 
extent could be subservient to 
good, they supposed that good 

and evil had different origins. 

They looked upon matter as 
the source of all evil, and ar- 

* See Gaurs, ubo\c 



gued in this manner : There 
are many evils in this world, 
and men seem impelled by a 
natural instinct to the practice 
of those things which reason 
condemns; but that eternal mind, 
from which all spirits derive 
their existence, must be inac- 
cessible to all kinds of evil, be- 
ing of a most perfect and be- 
neficent nature. Therefore the 
origin of those evils with which 
the universe abounds, must be 
sought somewhere else than in 
the Deity. Now there is no- 
thing without or foreign to the 
Deity but matter: therefore 
matter is the centre and source 
of all evil. Having assumed 
these principles, they proceed- 
ed further, and affirmed that 
matter was eternal, and derived 
its present form, not from the 
will of the supreme God, but 
from the creating power of some 
inferiour intelligence, to whom 
the world and its inhabitants 
owed their existence. 

In their system it was gen- 
erally Supposed, that all intelli- 
gences had only one source, 
viz. the Divine Mind. And to 
help out the doctrine concern- 
ing the origin of evil, it was 
imagined, that though the Di- 
vine Being himself was essen- 
tially and perfectly good, those 
intelligences, or spirits, who 
were derived from him, and es- 
pecially those who were deriv- 
ed from them, were capable of 
depravation. 

The great boast of tne Gnos- 
tics, was their doctrine con- 



GNO 



97 



GNO 



cerning the derivation of vari- 
ous intelligences (called aims J 
from the Supreme Mind, which 
they thought to be done by 
emanation or efflux : and as 
those were equally capable of 
producing other intelligences in 
the same manner, and some of 
them were male, and others fe- 
male, there was room for end- 
less combinations of them. For 
a farther elucidation of the term 
aions 9 see the article Basilidians. 
The oriental sages expected 
the arrival of an extraordinary 
messenger of the Most High, in- 
vesfed with a divine authority, 
endowed with the most eminent 
sanctity and wisdom ; and pe- 
culiarly appointed to enlighten 
with the knowledge of the Su- 
preme Being, the darkened 
minds of miserable mortals. 
When these philosophers after- 
wards discovered, that Christ 
and his followers wrought mir- 
acles of the most amazing kind, 
and of the most salutary na- 
ture, they were easily induced 
to connect their fundamental 
doctrines with those of Chris- 
tianity, by supposing him the 
great messenger expected from 
above, to deliver men from the 
power of the malignant genii, 
to whom, according to their doc- 
trine, the world was subjected ; 
and to free their souls from the 
dominion of corrupt matter. 
But though they considered him 
as the son of the Supreme God, 
Kent from the pleroma, or habi- 
tation of the everlasting Fa- 
ther, they denied his deity, 
looking upon him as inferiourto 



the Father. They also reject- 
ed his humanity, upon the sup- 
position that every thing con- 
crete and corporeal is in itself 
essentially and intrinsically e- 
vil. Hence the greater part of 
the Gnostics denied that Christ 
was clothed with a real body, 
or that he really suffered the 
pains and sorrows of the cross. 
They maintained, that he came 
to mortals with no other view 
than to deprive the aions 9 or 
spiritual tyrants of this world, 
of their influence upon virtuous 
and heaven-born souls ; and, 
destroying the empire of these 
wicked spirits, to teach man- 
kind how they might separate 
the divine mind from the im- 
pure body, and render the for- 
mer worthy of being united to 
the Father of spirits. It has been 
supposed that the apostle Paul, 
when he censures ** endless gen- 
ealogies and old wives' fables," 
(1 Tim. i. 4.) has reference to 
the philosophy of the Gnostics. 
Their persuasion, that evil re- 
sided in matter, rendered them 
unfavourable to wedlock, and 
led them to hold the doctrine 
of the resurrection of the body 
in great contempt. They con- 
sidered it as a mere clog to the 
immortal soul, and supposed 
that nothing was meant by it, 
but either a moral change in 
the minds of men, which took 
place before they died ; or that 
it signified the ascent of the 
soul to its proper abode in the 
superiour regions, when it was 
disengaged from its earthly in- 
cumbrance. 



GNO 



98 



GRE 



As the Gnostics were philo- 
sophic and speculative people, 
and affected refinement, they 
did not make ijiuch account of 
public worship, or of positive 
institutions of any kind : they 
are said not to have had any or- 
der in their churches. 

As many of this denomina- 
tion thought that Christ had not 
any real body, and therefore 
had not any proper flesh and 
blood, it seems, on this ground, 
when they used to celebrate the 
eucharist, they did not make 
any use of wine, which repre- 
sents the blood of Christ, but 
of water only* 

We have little account of 
what they thought with respect 
to baptism ; but it seems that 
some of them at least disused 
it : and it is said that others 
abstained from the eucharist 
and from prayer. 

The greatest part of this de- 
nomination adopted rules of 
life, which were lull of austeri- 
ty, recommending a strict and 
rigorous abstinence ; and pre- 
scribing the most severe bodily 
mortifications, from a notion 
that they had a happy influence 
in purifying and enlarging the 
mind, and in disposing it for 
the contemplation of celestial 
things. 

The Egyptian Gnostics are 

distinguished from the Asiatic 
by rejecting the evil principle 



of the Persians — by making Je- 
sus and Christ two persons, and 
by less severity of life and man- 
ners.* 

These branches of the Gnos- 
tics were subdivided into vari- 
ous denominations. See Jlnti- 
tacta', Ascodrutcs, Bardesanistes, 
Basilidians, Carpocralians, Cer- 
donians, Cerinthians, Marcosi- 
ans, Ophites, Satumicuis, Simo- 
nians, and Valentinians. 

GORTONIANS, a sect that 
made great disturbance in New 
England in 1643. S. Gorton 
was their leader, and was 
charged with antinomian senti- 
ments.f 

^GOSPELLERS, a sect 
which arose at the time of the 
reformation in England, and 
which, speaking slightly of the 
law and all its obligations* and 
talking highly of grace, are 
charged with introducing anti- 
nomianism into that country.}: 

^GRECIANS. The ancient 
Greeks derived their theology 
and mythology from Egypt or 
Syria, or perhaps both. Mr. 
Bryant my b, those, who derived 
their religion from Egypt and 
tho East, misconstrued every 
thing they borrowed, and ad- 
ded many opinions of their 
own.§ Others suppose the 
Greek mythology a corruption 
of the scripture history, and 
much learned ingenuity has 
been employed to show that the 



• Mbsheiro, vert. i. p. 69—109, Priest les. History, vol. i. p. 

186. History of early opinions, vol. i. p. 120. PerciyaTs Dissertatl 
j Hutcbifi! on ' s Hhst« vol. i. ]). 1 17. 
± Grant's History of the Eng. Chun |i, vol* i. p. 403. 
I 15:- lysis, vol. i. p 



?1— 



GRE 



99 



GRE 



gods of Greece borrowed their 
history from the Jewish patri- 
archs. Saturn is supposed to 
have been Noah ; Neptune — Ja- 
pheth; Apollo — Joshua; Bac- 
chus — Moses ; and so of the rest, 
except Jupiter or Jove, the Su- 
preme God, whose name is de- 
rived from Jah, or the incom- 
municable name, Jehovah.* The 
probability seems to be that in 
the first instance most pagan 
nations worshipped the sun and 
other heavenly bodies, and af- 
terwards those heroes, or sec- 
ondary gods, whose history 
they borrowed from tradition, 
and improved by poetic fables, 
till they formed the elegant 
system of the Greek mytholo- 

2TV. 

' GREEK CHURCH. In the 
eighth century, there arose a 
difference between the eastern 
and western churches, which 
caused much contention dur- 
ing the ninth century ; and 
in the eleventh a total separ- 
ation took place. At that time 
the patriarch Michael Ceru- 
larius, who was desirous to be 
freed from the papal author- 
ity, published an invective a- 
gainst the Latin church, and 
accused its members of main- 
taining various errours. Pope 
Leo IX retorted the charge, and 
sent legates from Rome to Con- 
stantinople. The Greek patri- 
arch refused to see them ; upon 
which they excommunicated 
him and his adherents publicly 
in the church of St. Sophia, a. d. 
1054. The Greek patriarch ex- 
* Stillingficet's Oria*. Sacne, B. iii« ch 



communicated those legates- 
with all their adherents and 
followers, in a public council ; 
and procured an order of the 
emperour for burning the act of 
excommunication, which they 
had pronounced against the 
Greeks. This rupture has nev- 
er been healed : and at this day 
a very considerable part of the 
world profess the religion of the 
Greek, or eastern church. The 
Nicene and Athanasian creeds 
are the symbols of their faith. 
The principal points, which 
distinguish the Greek church 
from the L atin, are as follow : 
— (1.) They maintain, that the 
Holy Ghost proceeds from the 
Father only, and not from the 
Father and the Son. — (2.) They 
disown the authority of the 
pope, and deny that the church 
of Rome is the true catholic 
church. — (3.) They do not af- 
fect the character of infallibili- 
ty. — (4.) They utterly disallow 
works of supererogation, indul- 
gences, and dispensations. — 
(5.) They admit of prayers and 
services for the dead, as an an- 
cient and pious custom ; and 
even pray for the remission of 
their sins : but they will not al- 
low the doctrine of purgatory, 
nor determine any thing dog- 
matically concerning the state 
of departed souls. — (6.) Some, 
as the Georgians, defer the bap- 
tism of their children till they 
are three or four or more years 
of age. — (7.) The chrism, or 
baptismal unction, immediately 
follows baptism. The priest 
v. Bell. Hist, of Relig\ p. 93, &c. 



GRE 



100 



GRE 



anoints the person baptized in 
the principal parts of his body, 
with an ointment consecrated 
with many curious ceremo- 
nies for that purpose by a bish- 
op ; this chrism is called the 
unction with ointment, and is a 
mystery peculiar to the Greek 
communion, holding the place 
of confirmation in that of the 
Roman : it is styled the seal of 
the gift of the Holy Ghost. — 
(8.) They insist, that the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's supper ought 
to be administered in both kinds: 
and they give the sacrament to 
children after baptism. — (9.) 
They exclude confirmation and 
extreme unction out of the sev- 
en sacraments ; but they use 
the holy oil, or euchalaion, 
which is not confined to persons 
in the close of life, like the ex- 
treme unction of the Roman 
church : but is administered, if 
required, to devout persons up- 
on the slightest malady. Sev- 
en priests are required to ad- 
minister this sacrament regu- 
larly, and it cannot be admin- 
istered at all by less than three. 
After the oil is solemnly conse- 
crated, each priest, in his turn, 
Anoints the lick person, and 
prays for his recovery. — (10.) 
The;, deny auricular confession 
to be a divine precej t, and say 
it is only a positive institution 
of the church. Confession and 
absolution constitute this mys- 
tery in the Greek church, in 
which penance does not make a 
necessary part. — (1 1.) They do 
not pay any religious linn 
* Their regul 



to the eucharist. — (12.) They 
administer the communion to 
the laity, both in sickness and 
health. — (13.) They do not ad- 
mit of images or figures in 
bass-relief, or embossed work ; 
but use painting and sculpture 
in silver. — (14.) They permit 
their secular* clergy to marry 
once ; but never twice, unless 
they renounce their function, 
and become laymen. — (15.) 
They condemn all fourth mar- 
riages. 

The invocation of saints and 
transubstantiation, are alike re- 
ceived by the Greek and Latin 
churches. They observe a 
number of holydays, and keep 
four fasts in the year more so- 
lemn than the rest j of which 
the fast in lent, before easter, 
is the chief. 

The service of the Greek 
church is too long and compli- 
cated to be particularly describ- 
ed in this work : the greatest 
part consists in psalms and 
hymns. — Five orders of priest- 
hood belong to the Greek 
church ; viz. bishops, priests, 
deacons, sub-deacons, and read- 
ers ; which last includes sing- 
ers, (Vc. The episcopal older 
is distinguished by the titles of 
metropolitan, arch-bishops, and 
bishops. The head of (he Greek 
church, the patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, is elected by twelve 
bishops, who reside nearest 
that (anions capital; but the 
right of confirming this elec- 
tion belongs at present to the 
Turkish emperour. The power 
are never allowed to marry. 



GRE 



101 



GYM 



of this prelate is very exten- 
sive. He calls councils by his 
own authority to govern the 
church, and with permission of 
the emperour, administers jus- 
tice in civil cases among the 
members of his communion. 
The other patriarchs are those 
of Jerusalem, Antioch, and 
Alexandria, all nominated by 
the patriarch of Constantinople, 
who enjoys a most extensive 
j urisdiction. For the adminis- 
tration of ecclesiastical affairs, 
a synod is convened monthly, 
composed of the heads of the 
church resident in Constantino- 
ple. In this assembly the pa- 
triarch of Constantinople pre- 
sides, with those of Antioch 
and Jerusalem, and twelve arch- 
bishops. 

In regard to discipline and 
worship, the Greek church has 
the same division of the clergy 
into regular and secular, the 
same spiritual jurisdiction of 
bishops and their officials, the 
same distinction of ranks and 
offices with the church of Rome. 

The Greek church compre- 
hends in its bosom a consider- 
able part of Greece, the Gre- 
cian isles, Wallachia, Molda- 
via, Egypt, Abyssinia, Nubia, 
Lydia, Arabia, Mesopotamia, 
Syria, Silicia, and Palestine; 
Alexandria, Antioch, and Jeru- 
salem ; the whole of the Rus- 
sian empire in Europe; great 
part of Siberia in Asia ; As- 



tracan, Casan, and Georgia* 
The riches of some of the 
Greek churches and monaste- 
ries, in jewels, (particularly 
pearls,) in plate, and in the hab- 
its of the clergy, are very great, 
and reckoned not much inieri- 
our to those in Roman Catholic 
countries.* See Russian Church. 
*GYMNOSOPHISTS, a sect 
of Indian philosophers, famous 
in antiquity for tlieir strict ad- 
herence to the principles of the 
religion they professed, their 
devotedness to the study of wis- 
dom, and their aversion to indo- 
lence and idleness. They be- 
lieved in the immortality and 
transmigration of the soul, and 
placed the chief happiness of 
man in a contempt of the delu- 
sive pleasures and attractions 
of this mortal life. They dwelt 
in woods, where they lived up- 
on the wild products and fruits 
of the earth, and never drank 
wine, nor married. In some 
cases they did not form them- 
selves into societies, but each 
had his private recess, where 
he studied and performed his 
devotions by himself. These 
were a kind of hermits, of 
which some are said to have 
dwelt on a mountain in Ethio- 
pia. 

They were called Gymnoso- 
phists, i. e. naked philosophers, 
not because they went absolute- 
ly naked, but perhaps in ridi- 
cule, because they wore only 



* Ricaut's State of the Greek Church. King's History of the Greek Church, 
p. 11—134. Father Simon's Religion of the Eastern Nations, p. 5—8. Theve- 
not's Travels, p. 412. Broughton's Hist, Lib. vol i. p. 145. History of Reli- 
gion, vol. vi. p. 251—253. Pinkerton's Greek Church in Russia. 



HAL 



102 



HAL 



what was required for decency ences, and practised medicine, 
and convenience. Some of them They are supposed to have had 
attained to eminence in the sci- their origin from the Bramins.* 



H 



HALCYONS, a denomina- 
tion which arose in 1802, and 
took the title of the Halcyon 
Church in Columbia. This 
church admits men of different 
sentiments into its fellowship ; 
they profess to adhere strictly 
to the scriptures, and renounce 
all manner of creeds and con- 
fessions of faith. 

They deny the doctrine of 
the trinity ; and say, " there 
is no other God, nor person in 
the godhead, but the Father — 
and the Messiah is the person- 
ality of the Father," and « the 
Father cannot be known as a 
person, only as lie was pleased 
to assume personality in his 
anointed." They also deny 
the doctrine of the eternal pun- 
ishment of the wicked. They 
assert that both the fallen an- 
gels and wicked men will cease 
to exist at the close of the 
mediatorial kingdom of our Sa- 
viour. 

They practise baptism in this 
manner: those who profess 
their faith in Christ, walk down 
to the water in procession, with 
a large congregation, accom- 
panied with vocal and instru- 
mental music, and arc baptized 
by muring water on the head, 

• Fncy. Perth. 

t 1 fipiitlej addressed to chr 

1803. 



in the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, and using these words : 
" By the authority of the great 
head of Zion, I haptize thee in 
the name of our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom is exhibited, 
in one glorious person, Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost. A- 
men." 

The members of the Halcy- 
on church devote their chil- 
dren to the Lord, not hy bap- 
tism, but by dedicating them to 
the Lord, and placing them un- 
der the guardianship of the 
church, the members of which 
receive them in their arms; 
and petition the Lord for a 
blessing on them, and watch 
over them, that they may re- 
ceive a religious education.! 

HALDANITES, so called 
from Messrs. Robert and James 
Haldane, brothers of very res- 
pectable characters, who possess 
an ample fortune. These gen- 
tlemen seceded from the church 
of Scotland, and are what is 
(ailed open communion Bap- 
tists. They admit to the fel- 
lowship of their churches, all 
whom they consider christians* 
thoflgh differing from them a- 
bout baptism, and other sub- 
jects. Baintship they consider 

islians of all denomination published 



HAL 



103 



HAL 



as the basis of christian union, 
and believe that the bible teach- 
es christians mutual forbear- 
ance, *&c. 

The first object the Mes- 
srs. Haldanes had in view, was 
to devote themselves to the pro- 
pagation of the gospel in India ; 
but being prevented by the East 
India Company, they turned 
their attention to its dissemi- 
nation at home. Accordingly 
in 1797, they formed a society, 
whose professed object was to 
send forth men to preach the 
gospel in those parts of Scot- 
land where they conceived this 
blessing was not enjoyed in its 
purity, and where it was not 
regularly dispensed. The mem- 
bers of this society travelled at 
different times, through the 
greater part of Scotland,preach- 
ing the gospel to their country- 
men, and it was their invariable 
rule, not to receive any com- 
pensation for their labours. 
They spent large sums in the 
erection of convenient places of 
worship in Edinburgh and in 
Glasgow, and in other means of 
promoting religion. 

This society reject all creeds 
and confessions of faith, and 
profess to take the scrip- 
tures as the sole rule of doc- 
trine, discipline, and worship. 
They are independents in the 
strictest sense of the word.; and 
no denomination disclaim more 
than they, either following men, 
or being followed by others in 
matters of religion. 



The Messrs. Haldanes are pas- 
tors over a considerably large 
church in Edinburgh. When 
they became baptists, a very 
considerable number of the 
church separated. Some of 
these united together as a 
church, chose pastors, and to 
this day continue independents. 
Another part of them are under 
the pastoral care of Mr. Innes, 
who became a baptist, after 
examining the subject. His 
change of sentiment did not oc- 
casion a separation, as from his 
first settlement differences in 
opinion were made a subject 
of forbearance, which was not 
the case at first with the Mes- 
srs. Haldanes. Messrs, Erving 
and Wardlaw were in union 
with these gentlemen previous 
to their becoming baptists. At 
that time, and lor some time af- 
ter, various religious subjects 
were under discussion at Glas- 
gow, and in several other pla- 
ces, where there were churches. 
These discussions led to inqui- 
ry in the various churches con- 
nected with them ; under some 
of them a separation took place. 
The Messrs. Haldanes, and al- 
so Erving and Wardlaw, are 
said to favour some of the doc- 
trines of Sandeman. 

A few years since, a number 
of ministers came from Scot- 
land to America, in the charac- 
ter of missionaries of the inde- 
pendent persuasion, and some 
of them were patronized by the 
liberal Robert Haldane of Edin- 



* See a tract written by Mr. James Italdatie on that subject ; and also bis 
Remarks on Mr. Jones' Review of his observations on forbearance. 



HAT 



104 



HEB 



burgh. These missionaries, af- 
ter travelling a short time in 
different parts of the United 
States, were led to embrace 
the baptist sentiments. Some 
churches have been founded by 
the converts ; — among others, 
Mr. Walter Balfour has gather- 
ed a small church in Boston and 
Charlestown, to which he still 
ministers. 

These churches disapprove 
of all connexion with the world, 
in the support of the gospel 
and with other churches in 
choosing and ordaining elders. 
They deny, that present minis- 
ters are successors of the apos- 
tles in the sense frequently con- 
veyed on baptismal and other 
occasions ; and that their office, 
as teachers and rulers in the 
church, should be known by 
any distinction in dress or ti- 
tles. They maintain weekly 
communion — reject creeds and 
confessions of faith ; and use 
no platform of church govern- 
ment but the scriptures. 

They have been supposed by 
some to have imbibed Sande- 
man's notions of faith, divine 
influence) religious experience, 
&C. This charge they deny ; 
hut admit that (hey favour some 
of the doctrines of ttandeman. 
because they conceive they are 
taught in the scriptures** 

HATTEMIBTS derivettaeir 
name from 1\ Van Hattem, a 
minister in the province of Zea- 



land, in the seventeenth centu- 
ry. He interpreted the Cal- 
vinistic doctrine concerning ab- 
solute decrees, so as to deduce 
from it the system of a fatal 
and uncontroulable necessity. 
He denied the difference be- 
tween moral good and evil, and 
the corruption of human nature. 
Hence he concluded, that man- 
kind were under no sort of ob- 
ligation to endeavour after a 
regular obedience to the divine 
laws ; but that the whole of re- 
ligion consisted, not in acting, 
but in suffering,- and that all 
the precepts of Christ are re- 
ducible to this one — that we 
bear with patience the events 
that happen, and make it our 
study to maintain tranquillity of 
mind. He also affirmed, that 
Christ had not satisfied the di- 
vine justice by his deatli and 
sufferings : but had only signifi- 
ed to us thereby that the Deity 
was propitious towards man- 
kind. He maintained farther* 
that this was Christ's manner of 
justify ingsiimers: and also that 
God does not so properly punish 
men/or their sins, as by them.f 
See A'ecessarimis. 

*U EATIIEN, a term which, 
like Gentiles, was applied for- 
merly to all nations hut the 
Jews, and is still applicable to 
all pagan nations. 

♦HEBREWS, the posterity 
of Ebetf the ancestor of Abra- 



ham (Gen. \i. 16 — 26) and the 

• Benedi< ry of.the Baptists, vol. ii. p. 407, 408, 409. 

The compiler of this work has been favoured by Mr. Balfour, men tio 

of a church of weekly communion baptists, with much of 
the int ined in this article, 

j Mo9hcim, vol. iv. p. 5 



HEL 



105 



HER 



Jews. So Paul, being by both 
parents a Jew, calls himself an 
Hebrew of the Hebrews, Phil, 
iii. 5. Some think, however, 
that the term was used in allu- 
sion to its original import, a 
pilgrim or stranger; so they 
read, Gen. x. 21. Shem was 
the father of all the children 
not of Eber, but of passage 
or pilgrimage, i. e. of all pil- 
grims.* See Heb. xi. 12 — 16. 

HELCESAITES, or Hel- 
saites : See Elcesaites ; and to 
what is there said, it may be 
added, that they appear to be 
a party of Ebionites, called also 
Ossens, Sampseans, and Amp- 
senians, who subsisted under 
one or other of these names 
through most part of the second 
and third centuries. Their o- 
pinions are involved in much 
obscurity : thus far seems to be 
ascertained, that they rejected 
certain parts of both the old 
and new testaments ; and in 
some cases excused apostasy, 
or at least admitted of equivo- 
cation, when called upon to re- 
nounce christianity.f 

^HELLENISTS, Jews who 
speak the Greek language. Acts 
vi. 14 To such we are indebt- 
ed for the Greek version of the 
old testament, commonly call- 
ed the Septuagint, or the version 
of the seventy. Others think they 
were Grecian proselytes to the 
Jewish religion, Grecian Jews.$ 



*HEMERO-BAPTISTS, a 

Jewish sect which practised 
daily baptism, or frequent re- 
ligious washings ; which is said 
to have been the case also with 
the Christians of St. John, at 
least on some occasions.|| 

HENRICIANS, the follow- 
ers of one Henry, a pious and 
zealous monk of the twelfth 
century. He rejected the bap- 
tism of infants, censured with 
severity the licentious manners 
of the clergy, whom he in vain 
attempted to reform, and treat- 
ed the festivals and ceremonies 
of the church with great con- 
tempt. He died in prison.*! 

HERACLEONITES, the 
followers of Heracleon, from 
whom they were named.** See 
Valentinians. 

HERMOGENIANS, a de- 
nomination which arose to- 
wards the close of the second 
century ,• so denominated from 
Hermogenes, a painter by pro- 
fession. He regarded matter 
as the turbid fountain of all e- 
vil, and could not persuade him- 
self that God had created it, be- 
cause he was willing to attrib- 
ute to him nothing but good ; 
he believed however, that from 
this eternal mass of evil and cor- 
ruption, the Deity formed this 
beautiful world, and its inhab- 
itants, both celestial and terres- 
trial.ft 

HERNHUTTERS, Mora- 



* Parkhurst's Greek Lex. in 'Ef^Ta^. 

f Lardner's Heretics, p. 424, Sec. 4= Doddridge in loc. 

§ Wolfius in loc. Parkhurst's Greek Lex. in 'EAAjjv/g-tJs. 
!i Scotch Theol. Diet. ^ Mosh. vol. ii. p. 448. ** Erough. vol, i, p. 4,M, 
f[ Mosheim, vol. i. p. 190. Lardner's Heretics, p. 374, &o. 

14 



niE 



106 



I1IN 



vians, or united brethren, so 
called from their settlement at 
Hernhuth. See United Brethren. 

HERODIANS, those Jews 
who adhered to Herod and the 
Roman government, and in ma- 
ny instances symbolized with 
the heathen, in opposition to the 
patriotic party, which adhered 
closely to the Mosaic law, and 
groaned under this foreign 
yoke. They were chiefly Sad- 
ducees, and persons of licentious 
manners.* See Mark viii. 15. 

HETEROUSIANS, a name 
given to one of the Arian divi- 
sions, which taught that the na- 
ture of the Son was not even 
similar to that of the Father. 
See Homoiausians. 

HIERACITES, a denomi- 
nation in the third century ; so 
called from their leader Hierax, 
a philosopher and magician of 
Egypt, who maintained that the 
principal object of Christ's min- 
istry, was the promulgation of 
a new law, more severe and 
perfect than that of Moses. 
Hence he concluded that the 
use of flesh, w ine. wedlock, And 
of other things agreeable to the 
outward senses, which had been 
permitted under the Mosaic 
dispensation, was absolutely 
prohibited by Christ. lie is 



said to have excluded from the 
kingdom of heaven children 
who died before they had ar- 
rived to the use of reason ; and 
that upon the supposition that 
God was bound to administer 
rewards to those onlij who had 
fairly finished their victorious 
conflict with the body and its 
lusts : he maintained also that 
Melchisedec was the Holy 
Ghost. His disciples taught, 
that the Word, or Son of God, 
is contained in the Father, as 
a little vessel in a great one ; 
whence they had the name of 
JlxetangismonitesJ rom the Greek 
word jueTayyio-iLLons. He also de- 
nied the doctrine of the resur- 
rection.! 

HINDOOS, or Hindus, oth- 
erwise called Gentoos, the ori- 
ginal inhabitants of Hindoos- 
tan or Indostan and the bra- 
mins are their priests. They 
pretend that their legislator, 
Brama, bequeathed to them a 
book, called the vedas, con- 
taining his doctrines and in- 
structions. The shanscritj: lan- 
guage, in which the vedas§ are 
written, was, for many centu- 
ries, concealed in the hands of 
thebramins ; but has at length 
been brought to light, by the 
indefatigable industry of the 



* Stackliouse's Hist, of the Bible, vol. v. p. 128. f Mosheim, vol. i. p. 246. 

i The slianscrit language was till lately little known even in Asia. It is 
deemed sacred by the bramins, and confined solely to the offices of religion- 
The import of its name is, according to the eastern style, the language •/per- 
fcsti'.i lopssdUj vol. xit, p 

§The antiquity of the vedas has hero much questioned by European schol- 
ars. There is a very able treatise on the subject, by R.T. Coleridge, Ksq. in 
■ vol of the Asiatic R i. He thinks interpolations wul be found 

in their sacred writings I says that such have been found by Sir 

Wm. Jones and Mr. Bliquiere ; bill adds, that the greatest part of the boofc 
•1 by the learned Hindus, will | be found genuine. 



HIN 



107 



HIN 



late learned and ingenious Sir 
Wm. Jones and others. 

The Rev. Mr. Maurice, a 
learned writer of the present 
day, has, in an elaborate work, 
entitled, « A history of the an- 
tiquities of India, 55 traced the 
origin of the Hindoo nation, 
and developed their religious 
system. The following imper- 
fect sketch of the religion of 
Hindostan, is taken from that 
author. 

He supposes that the first 
migration of mankind took 
place before the confusion of 
tongues at Babel, from the re- 
gion of Ararat, where the ark 
rested. By the time the earth 
was sufficiently dry for so long 
a journey, either Noah himself, 
or some descendant of Shem, 
gradually led on the first jour- 
ney to the western frontiers of 
India ; that this increasing col- 
ony flourished for a long suc- 
cession of ages in primitive hap- 
piness and innocence ; practis- 
ed the purest rites of the patri- 
archal religion, without images 



and temples, till at length the 
descendants of Ham invaded 
and conquered India, and cor- 
rupted their ancient religion. 

According to the Hindoo the- 
ology, Brahme,* the great be- 
ing, is the supreme, eternal, 
uncreated God. Brama, the 
first created being, by whom he 
made and governs the world, is 
the prince of the beneficent spir- 
its. He is assisted by Vish- 
nu, the great preserver of men, 
who, nine several times, ap- 
peared upon earth, and under a 
human form, for the most be- 
neficent purposes. Vishnu is 
often styled Crishna, the In- 
dian Apollo, and in his charac- 
ter greatly resembles the Mi- 
thra of Persia. This prince of 
the benevolent Deutas has for 
a coadjutor Mahadeo, or Si- 
va, the destroying power of 
God. And this three-fold di- 
vinity, armed with the terrours 
of almighty power, pursue 
through the whole extent of 
creation the rebellious Deutas, 
headed by Mahasoor, the great 



* According to Sir W. Jones, the supreme God Brahme, in his triple form, 
is the only self-existent divinity acknowledged by the philosophical Hindoo. 
When they consider the divine power, as exerted in creating or giving exis- 
tence to that which existed not before, they call the Deity Brahme. When 
they view him in the light of destroyer, or rather changer of forms, he is cal- 
led Mahadeo, Siva, and various other names. When they consider him as the 
preserver of created things, they give him the name of Vishnu ; for since 
the power of preserving creation by a superintending providence belongs emi- 
nently to the godhead, they hold that power to exist transcendently in the 
preserving member of the triad, whom they suppose to be every where always ; 
not in substance, but in spirit and energy. See x\siatic Researches. 

Following the leading ideas of Sir W. Jones, Mr. Maurice asserts, that 
there is a perpetual recurrence of the sacred triad in the Asiatic mythology ; 
that the doctrine of a trinity was promulgated in India, in the geeta, 1500 years 
before the birth of Plato ; for of that remote date are the Elephanta cavern, 
and the Indian history of Mahabharat, in which a triad of Deity are alluded to, 
and designated. Hence he supposes that the doctrine of a trinity was deliver- 
ed from the ancient patriarchs, and diffused over the east during the migra- 
tion and dispersion of their Hebrew posterity. 



HIN 



108 



HIN 



malignant spirit who seduced 
them, and dart upon their flying 
bands the fiery shafts of divine 
vengeance. 

The nine incarnations of 
Vishnu, represent the Deity 
descending in a human shape 
to accomplish certain awful and 
important events, as in the in- 
stance of the three first; to con- 
found blaspheming vice, to sub- 
vert gigantic tyranny, and to 
avenge oppressed innocence, as 
in the five following ; or final- 
ly, as the ninth to abolish hu- 
man sacrifices. 

The Hindoo system teaches 
the existence of good and evil 
genii, or, in the language of 
Hindostan, debtas, dewtas, or 
dev itas. These are represent- 
ed as eternally conflicting to- 
gether ; and the incessant con- 
flict which subsisted between 
them filled creation with up- 
roar, and all its subordinate 
classes with dismay. 

The doctrine of the metem- 
psychosis, or transmigration of 
souls, is universally believed in 
India, from which country it is 
supposed to have originated 
many centuries before the birth 
ol* Plato, and was first promul- 
gated in the geeta of Uyasa, the 
Plato of India. This doctrine 
teaches that degenerate spirits, 
fallen from their original recti- 
tude, migrate through various 
bobuns, in the bodies of differ- 
ent animals. 



The Hindoos suppose that 
there are fourteen bobuns, or 
spheres ; seven below, and sev- 
en above the earth. The spheres 
above the earth are gradually 
ascending. The highest is the 
residence of Brahma and his 
particular favourites. After the 
soul transmigrates through va- 
rious animal mansions, it as- 
cends up the great sideral lad- 
der of seven gates, and through 
the revolving spheres, which 
are called in India, the bobuns 
of purification. 

It is the invariable belief of 
the bramins that man is a fallen 
creature. Their doctrine of the 
transmigration of the soul is 
built upon this foundation. The 
professed design of the metem- 
psychosis was to restore the 
fallen soul to its pristine state 
of perfection and blessedness. 
The Hindoos represent the Dei- 
ty as punishing only to reform 
his creatures. Nature itself 
exhibits one vast field of purga- 
tory for the classes of existence. 
Their sacred writings represent 
the whole universe as an ample 
and august theatre for the pro- 
bationary exertion of millions 
of beings, who arc supposed to 
be so many spirits degraded 
from the high honours of angel- 
ical distinction, and condemn- 
ed to ascend, through various 
gradations of toil and suffer- 
ing,* to that exalted sphere of 
perfection and happiness which 



* It is supposed that PythsgOTftf derived his doctrine of transmigration from 

the Indian bramins ; for in that ancient book, the institutes of Menu, said to be 

compiled manv centuries befbM Pythagoras was born, there is a long* chapter 

OH traitfcniirration and final beatitude. It is there asserted, that so far as vi- 

>uls, addicted to sensuality, indulge themselves in forbidden pleasures, even 



HIN 



109 



HIN 



they enjoyed before their defec- 
tion. 

This doctrine, so universally 
prevalent in Asia, that man is 
a fallen creature, gave birth to 
the persuasion, that by severe 
sufferings, and a long series of 
probationary discipline, the 
soul might be restored to its 
primitive purity. Hence obla- 
tions the most costly, and sac- 
rifices the most sanguinary, in 
the hope of propitiating the an- 
gry powers, forever loaded the 
altars of the pagan deities. 
They had even sacrifices de- 
nominated those of regeneration, 
and those sacrifices were al- 
ways profusely stained with 
blood. 

The Hindoos suppose that 
the vicious are consigned to 
perpetual punishment in the 
animation of successive animal 
forms, till, at the stated period, 
another renovation of the four 
jugs, or grand astronomical pe- 
riods, shall commence upon the 
dissolution of the present. Then 



they are called to begin anew 
the probationary journey of 
souls, and all will be finally 
happy. 

The destruction of the exist- 
ing world by fire is another 
tenet of the bramins. 

The temples, or pagodas, for 
divine worship in India, are 
magnificent $ and their reli- 
gious rites are pompous and 
splendid. Since the Hindoos 
admit that the Deity occasion- 
ally assumes an elementary 
form, without defiling his holi- 
ness, they make various idols 
to assist their imaginations, 
when they offer up their prayers 
to the invisible Deity. 

Besides the daily offerings of 
rice, fruits, and ghee, at the 
pagodas, the Hindoos have a 
grand annual sacrifice, not very 
unlike that of the scape-goat a- 
mong the Hebrews.* They 
inculcate various and frequent 
ablutions, which are intended 
as means of purifying their 
souls from sin. 



to the same degree shall the acuteness of their senses be raised in their future 
bodies, that they may suffer analogous pain, 

* The necessity of some atonement for sin, is one of the prevailing 1 ideas 
among the Hindoos. Hence they sacrifice certain animals at stated seasons, 
and particularly a horse, which is the victim above referred to ; and hence 
the voluntary tortures which they inflict upon themselves. Mr. Swartz, one of 
the Malabarian missionaries, who was instrumental in converting two thousand 
persons to the christian religion, relates that a certain man on the Malabar 
coast had inquired of various devotees and priests how he might make atone- 
ment ; and at last he was directed to drive iron spikes, sufficiently blunted, 
through his sandals ; and on these spikes he was to place his naked feet, and 
walk about four hundred and eighty miles. If, through loss of blood, or weak- 
ness of body, he was necessitated to halt, he was obliged to wait for healing 
and strength. He undertook his journey ; and while lie halted under a large 
shady tree, where the gospel was sometimes preached, one of the missionaries 
came and preached in his hearing from these words : " The blood of Jesus 
Christ cleanseth from all sin." While he was preaching, the man rose up, 
threw off his torturing sandals, and cried out aloud, This is what I ivant ; and 
he became a living witness of the truth of that passage of scripture, which had 
such a happy effect upon his mind. See Baptist Annual Register for 1794. 



HIN 



no 



HIN 



The Hindoo religionists are 
divided into a great variety of 
sects, but ultimately branch 
forth into two principal ones j 
those of Vishnu and Siva, the 
worshippers of the Deity in his 
preserving and destroying ca- 
pacities. 

There subsists to this day a- 
among the Hindoos a voluntary 
sacrifice of too singular and 
shocking a nature to pass un- 
noticed ; which is that of the 
wives burning themselves with 
the bodies of their deceased 
husbands. These women are 
trained from their infancy in 
the full conviction of their ce- 
lestial rank ; and the belief that 
this voluntary sacrifice is the 
most glorious period of their 
lives ; and that thereby the ce- 
lestial spirit is released from its 
transmigrations, and the evils 
of a miserable existence, and 
flies to join the spirit of their 
deceased husbands in a state of 
purification. 

In a particular district of 
Bengal, religious veneration is 
paid to the cow ; in former 
times it was universal through 
Hindostan. This animal is 
venerated in a religious sense, 
as holding in (he rotation of the 
mHempsy; liosis the rank im- 
mediately preceding Ihe human 
form; and in a political sense 
as being the most useful and ne- 
cessary 6f the whole animal cre- 
ation, to a people forbidden to 
feed on any thing which has 
breathed the breath of life. 

From the earliest period, the 
people of India, lik< Chi- 



the same religion, laws, and 
customs. The religion of the 
Hindoos, though involved in su- 
perstition and idolatry, seems 
to have been originally pure ; 
inculcating the belief of an eter- 
nal and omnipotent Being ; their 
subordinate deities, Brama, 
Vishnu, and Siva, being on- 
ly representatives of the wis- 
dom, goodness, and power of 
the supreme Brahme, whom 
they call " The Principal of 
Truth, the Spirit of Wisdom, 
and the Supreme Being ;" though 
others think them emblematic 
of the mysterious doctrine of the 
trinity, as believed by the an- 
cient Hebrews. 

It is a singular circumstance 
that there is a striking similar- 
ity between the sacred rites of 
the Hindoos and those of the 
ancient Jews ; for instance, be- 
tween the character of the bra- 
mins or priests, and the Jew- 
ish levites ; between the cere- 
mony of the scape-goat, and a 
Hindoo ceremony, in which a 
horse is used for the goat. Ma- 
ny obsolete customs, alluded to 
in the old testament, might al- 
so receive illustration from the 
religious ceremonies of the 
Hindoos. They are perfectly 
indifferent about making pros- 
elytes or converts to their re- 
ligion, alleging, that all reli- 
gions are equally acceptable to 
the supreme Being; and that 
his wisdom and power would 
not have permitted such a va- 
riety, if he had not found plea- 
sure in beholding them. 

Mr. II allied, in his code of 
too laws, has translated 



HIN 



ill 



HOF 



an extract from a preliminary 
discourse to their code, which 
represents the Gentoo as the 
most tolerant of all religions. 
According* to this extract, " the 
diversities of belief among man- 
kind, are a manifest demonstra- 
tion of the power of the su- 
preme Being. For it is evi- 
dent that a painter, by sketch- 
ing a multiplicity of figures, 
and by arranging a variety of 
colours, procures reputation 
among men ; and a gardener 
gains credit by producing a 
number of different flowers. It 
is, therefore, absurdity and ig- 
norance, to view in an inferi- 
our light, him, who created both 
the painter and gardener. 55 Our 
author goes on to infer, from 
the varieties in created things, 
that the supreme Being has 
appointed and views different 
forms of religious worship with 
complacency. It has, howev- 
er, been said, that even the tol- 
erance of which the Gentoo re- 
ligion boasts, is confined to the 
diversities among themselves. 
But Sir Wm. Jones thinks, that 
the reason Christianity is not 
more readily received among 
them — is, that they confound 
their own religion with it, and 
consider the advent of Christ, 
as nothing more than one of the 
incarnations of Vishnu. 

The baptist society, which 
was founded in 1792, for evan- 
gelizing the heathen, first sent 
two of their ministers ,• viz. 
Mr. J. Thomas, and Mr. W. 
Carey , to this country : and all 



their communications, as well 
as the testimonies of many oth- 
ers who have made particular 
inquiry into these things, fully 
confirm the above remarks. 

For seven years Mr. Carey 
and his colleague, with another 
who joined them, seem to have 
laboured without any real suc- 
cess. But in the latter end of 
the year 1800, after the arrival 
of four more missionaries, and 
when they had formed a settle- 
ment at Serampore, in the vi- 
cinity of Calcutta, success be- 
gan to attend their labours. 
The new testament, which had 
been translated into Bengalee, 
was now printed ; and several 
of the natives, who, it had been 
said, would never relinquish 
caste, cheerfully made this sa- 
crifice, and were baptized in 
the name of the Lord Jesus. 
From that time to this they 
have been gradually increas- 
ing; and the scriptures have 
been translated into several of 
the eastern languages; mis- 
sionaries have also been sent 
from other societies. 

HOFFMANISTS, those who 
espoused the sentiments of Dan- 
iel Hoffman, professor in the 
university of Helmstadt, who in 
the year 1598 taught that the 
light of reason, even as it ap- 
pears in the writings of Plato 
and Aristotle, is adverse to re- 
ligion ; and that the more the 
human understanding is culti- 
vated by philosophical study, the 
more perfectly is the enemy sup- 
plied with weapons of defence.* 



* Enfield's History of Philosophy, vol, n. p. 5. 



HOP 



112 



HOP 



HOMOIOUSIANS, a name 
given to a branch of the Arians, 
who maintained that the nature 
of the Son was similar to that 
of the Father. See Arians. 

HOPK1NSIANS, or Hop- 
kintonians, so called from the 
Rev. Samuel Hopkins, D. D. 
pastor of the first congregation- 
al church at Newport : who in 
his sermons and tracts has 
made several additions to the 
sentiments first advanced by 
the celebrated Jonathan Ed- 
wards, late president of New 
Jersey college. 

The following is a summary 
of their distinguishing tenets, 
with a few of the reasons by 
which they are supported. 

I. That all true virtue, or 
real holiness, consists in disin- 
terested benevolence. The ob- 
ject of benevolence is universal 
being, including God and all 
intelligent creatures. It wish- 
es and seeks the good of every 
individual, so far as is consist- 
ent with the greatest good of 
the whole, which is comprised 
in the glory of God, and the 
perfection and happiness of his 
kingdom. The law of God is 
the standard of all moral recti- 
tude, oi' holiness. This is re- 
duced into love to God, and to 
our neighbour : and universal 
good-will comprehends all the 
love to God, our neighbour, 

rind ourselves, required in the 

divine law : and therefore must 

lie the whole of holy obedi- 
ence. Let any person relied on 
what arc the particular branch- 
of true piety : and he will 



find that disinterested affection 
is the distinguishing character- 
istic of each. For instance : 
all which distinguishes pious 
fear from the fear of the wick- 
ed, consists in love. Holy grat- 
itude is nothing but good will 
to God and man, ourselves in- 
cluded, excited by a view of the 
good will and kindness of God. 
Justice, truth, and faithfulness, 
are comprised in universal be- 
nevolence ; so are temperance 
and chastity : for an undue in- 
dulgence of our appetites and 
passions is contrary to benevo- 
lence, as tending to hurt our- 
selves or others ; and so oppo- 
site to the general good and the 
divine command. In short, all 
virtue is nothing but love to 
God and our neighbour, made 
perfect in all its genuine exer- 
cises and expressions. 

II. That all sin consists in 
selfishness. By this is meant an 
interested affection, by which a 
person sets himself up as the 
supreme, or only object of re- 
gard ; and nothing is lovely in 
his view, unless suited to pro- 
mote his private interest. This 
self-love is, every degree of it, 
enmitv against God : it is not 
subject to the law of God, and 
is the only affection that cau 
oppose it. It is the foundation 
of all spiritual blindness, and 
the source of all idolatry and 
false religion. It is the foun- 
dation of all covet ousness and 
sensuality ; of all falsehood, in- 
justirr, and oppression : as it 
ev ites mankind, by undue me- 
thods, to invade the property of 



HOP 



11? 



HOP 



others. Self-love produces all 
the violent passions ; envy, 
wrath, clamour, and evil speak- 
ing : ar>d every thing contrary 
to the divine law, is briefly 
comprehended in this fruitful 
source of iniquity, self-love. 

III. That there are no promi- 
ses of regenerating grace made 
to the actions of the unregene- 
rate. For as far as men act 
from self-love, they act for a 
bad end : for those, who have 
no true love to God, really ful- 
fil no duty when they attend 
on the externals of religion. 3 * 
IV. That the impotency of sin- 
ners, with respect to believing 
in Christ, is not natural, but 
moral : for it is a plain dictate 
of common sense, that natural 
impossibility excludes all blame. 
But an unwilling mind is uni- 
versally considered as a crime, 
and not as an excuse ; and is 
the very thing wherein our 
wickedness consists. 



V. That, in order to faith in 
Christ, a sinner must approve 
in his heart of the divine con- 
duct, even though God should cast 
him off forever ; which howev- 
er neither implies love to mis- 
ery, nor hatred of happiness.f 
For if the law is good, death is 
due to those who have broken 
it; and the judge of all the 
earth cannot but do right. Gen. 
xviii. 25. It would bring ever- 
lasting reproach upon his gov- 
ernment to spare us, consider- 
ed merely as in ourselves. 
When this is felt in our hearts, 
and not till then, we shall be 
prepared to look to the free 
grace of God, through Christ's 
redemption. 

VI. That the infinitely wise 
and holy God has exerted his 
omnipotent power, in such a 
manner as he purposed should 
be followed with the existence 
and entrance of moral evil in 
the system. For it must be ad . 



* The author of the moral Disquisitions, while comparing Hopkinsian-Calvk- 
ists with real Calvinists, has this inference : " It is evident that Hopkinsian senti- 
ments are only the genuine, flourishing", and fruitful branches of the calvinistic 
tree : for the Hopkinsians plead that there is no duty in the actions of sinners, 
because they are totally depraved. The broad foundation, which supports our 
ample superstructure, was long" since deeply and firmly laid in the first prin- 
ciples of Calvinism. To support our theory we need no first principles, ex- 
cept those which Calvinists have adopted and improved against Pelagians and 
Arminians." See Spring's moral Disquisitions, p. 40. 

f " As a particle of water is small, in comparison of a generous stream, so 
the man of humility feels small before the great family of his fellow-creatures. 
He values his soul ; but when he compares it to the great soul of mankind, he 
almost forgets and loses sight of it : for the governing principle of his heart is 
to estimate things according to their worth. When, therefore, he indulges a 
humble comparison with his Maker, he feels lost in the infinite fulness and 
brightness of divine love, as a ray of light is lost in the sun, and a particle of 
water in the ocean; It inspires him with the most grateful feelings of heart, 
that he lias opperUmity to be in the hand of God, as clay in the hand of the 
potter ; and as he considers himself in this humble light, he submits the na- 
ture and size of his future vessel entirely to God. As his pride is lost in the 
dust, he looks up with pleasure towards the throne of God, and rejoices wi*. * 
all his heart in the rectitude of the divine administration." 

15 



flOP 



114 



HOP 



luitted on all hands, that God 
has a perfect knowledge, lore- 
sight, and view of all possible 
existences and events. If that 
system and scene of operation, 
in which moral evil should nev- 
er have existence, was actually 
preferred in the divine mind, 
certainly the Deity is infinitely 
disappointed in the issue of his 
own operations. 

VII. That the introduction of 
sin is, upon the whole, for the 
general good. For the wisdom 
and pow er of the Deity are dis- 
played in carrying on designs 
of the greatest good : and 
the existence of moral evil has, 
undoubtedly, occasioned a more 
full, perfect, and glorious dis- 
covery of the infinite perfec- 
tions of the divine nature, than 
could otherwise have been made 
to the view of creatures. 

VIII. That repentance is before 
faith in Christ. By this is not 
intended, that repentance is be- 
fore a speculative belief of the 
being and perfections of God 
and of the person and charac- 
ter of Christ ; but only, that 
true repentance is previous to a 
saving faith in Christ, in which 
the believer is united to Christ, 
and entitled to the benefits of his 
mediation and atonement. So 
Christ com 

I ; and 
Paul preached to- 

it a > !. c: I faith town 

1st Mark i. 
. 21, 
i X. That, though men beca 

ttccordini 
a divine coi 



were, and are accountable for 
no sins but personal; for (1.) 
Adam's act, in eating the for- 
bidden fruit, was not the act of 
his posterity ; therefore they 
did not sin at the same time lie 
did. (2.) The sinfulness of that 
act could not be transferred to 
them afterwards : because the 
sinfulness of an act can no more 
be tranferred from one person 
to another, than an act itself. 
(3.) Therefore Adam's act, in 
eating the forbidden fruit, was 
not the cause, but only the oc- 
casion of his posterity's being 
sinners. Adam sinned, and 
now God brings his posterity 
into the world sinners. 

X. That though believers 
are justified through Christ's 
righteousness, yet his right- 
eousness is not transferred to 
them. For personal righteous- 
ness cannot be transferred from 
one person to another, nor per- 
sonal sin, otherwise the sinner 
would become innocent and 
Christ the sinner. (See Crispi- 
ans.) The scripture, therefore, 
represents believers as receiv- 
ing only the benefits of Christ's 
righteousness in justification, 
or their being pardoned and ac- 
cepted for Christ's righteous- 
ness' sake : and this is the pro- 
per scripture notion of imputa- 
tion. Jonathan's righteousness 
was imputed to Mephibosbeth, 
when David showed kindness 
to him for his father Jonathan's 
Sam. ix. 7. 

The Hopkinsians warmly ad- 
vocate the doctrine of the divine 
, that of particular dec- 



HOP 



115 



HOP 



lion, total depravity, the spe- 
cial influences of the spirit of 
God in regeneration, justifica- 
tion by faith alone, the final 
perseverance of the saints, and 
the consistency between entire 
freedom and absolute depend- 
ence ; and therefore claim it as 
their just due, since the world 
will make distictions, to be 
called Hopkinsian Calvinists.* 

In this place it may be prop- 
er to notice the difference be- 
tween Calvinists and Hopkin- 
sians, which consists in the fol- 
lowing particulars : Firstly, on 
the origin of sin. Secondly, on 
the consequences of Adam's sin. 
Thirdly, on the nature and 
character of virtue or holiness. 
Fourthly, on the nature of sin. 
Fifthly, on the nature and ex- 
tent of the atonement. Sixthly, 
on the effects of divine influen- 
ces. Seventhly, on justification. 
Eighthly, on the christian gra- 
ces. 

Firstly, on the origin of sin. 
Calvinists, though they main- 
tain, that " God hath decreed 
whatsoever comes to pass ;" yet 
deny that he is the efficient au- 
thor of sin ; — but the Hopkin- 
sians assert, that God is the ef- 
ficacious cause of all volitions 



in the human heart, whether 
good or evil.f 

Secondly, on the consequences 
of Mam's sin. The Calvin- 
ists maintain, that "All man- 
kind sinned in and fell with Ad- 
am, in his first transgression :" 
the Hopkinsians assert, that 
Adam alone was guilty of ori- 
ginal sin ; that guilt is a perso- 
nal thing, and can no more be 
transferred than action. Cal- 
vinists^: maintain, that man- 
kind, since the fall, labour un- 
der a natural or physical inca- 
pacity to obey God ; — but the 
Hopkinsians suppose, that total 
depravity consists in the op- 
position of the heart or will, to 
do what they are really able to 
perform ; which they call mor- 
al inability. 

Thirdly, mi the nature and char- 
acter of virtue or holiness. Cal- 
vinists maintain,that holiness in 
a moral agent consists in the con- 
formity of the whole being to 
the will of God. The Hopkin- 
sians assert, that holiness in a 
moral agent consists exclusive- 
ly in disinterested benevolence, 
and that those who love God 
for what he is, abstractedly con- 
sidered, will be willing^ to sa- 
crifice their temporal and eter- 



• Hopkins on Holiness, p. 7—202. Edwards on the Will, p. 234— 28<\ 
Bellamy's True Religion Delineated, p. 16. Edwards on the Nature of True 
Bellamy's Dialogues, p. 185. West's Essays on Moral Agency, 
Spring's Nature of Duty, p. 23. Moral Disquisitions, p. 4(h 



Virtue. 

p. 170—181. 

Manuscript by Dr. Emmons. 

f Dr. Hopkins says, that "God is as much the author of sinful, as of holy 
volitions, and that the professed Calvinist, who denies this, is not so consistent 
with himself as the Arminian." See Hopkins' System, vol. i. p. 197. 

t Some who call themselves Calvinists maintain with the Hopkinsians, that 
the inability of sinners is of a moral nature. 

§ The willingness Hopkinsians contend for, is restricted to those moments, 
while as yet the regenerate man has no certain evidence that he is a christian, 
or that God will save him. 



HOP 



116 



HOP 



nal interest for the glory of 
God, and the greater good of 
the whole. Calvinists maintain, 
that love to God originates 
from a sense of his goodness to 
us in particular, as well as from 
a consideration of the perfec- 
tions of his nature ; and deny 
that love to God implies in any 
circumstances a willingness to 
be eternally condemned. 

Fourthly, on the nature of sin. 
Calvinists define sin to be, " any 
want of conformity unto, or 
transgression of the law of 
God. 5 ' The Hopkinsians as- 
sert, that sin consists exclusive- 
ly in selfish moral exercises. 

Fifthly, on the extent and 
nature of the atonement. Ma- 
ny of the Calvinists maintain 
that Jesus Christ, by his death 
and sufferings, made an atone- 
ment for the sins of the elect 
only. The Hopkinsians assert, 
that the atonement was coex- 
tensive with the effects of the 
fall • and that Christ died not 
for a select number only, but 
for all mankind ; they suppose, 
however, that though by the 
atonement* a way was opened 
for all, yet none but those who 
were elected to eternal life will 
be saved. 

The Calvinists maintain that 
Christ was substituted for the 
elect, to obey and suffer in their 
stead, and was by imputation 
legally guilty, and that God 
cannot consistently With his jus- 
tice, refuse to pardon those. 



whom Christ has ransomed by 
undergoing the penalty due to 
their sins. On the other hand, 
the Hopkinsians assert, that the 
atonement differs essentially 
from all notions of debt and 
credit, and is simply an exhi- 
bition of God*s hatred to sin, 
and regard to his holy law. 
By the atonement, a way is 
opened for the great governour 
of the w r orld, consistently to 
bestow or withhold mercy as 
should most effectually answer 
the purposes of divine good- 
ness. 

Sixthly, on the effects of di- 
vine influences. The Calvinists 
maintain that " effectual calling 
is the work of God's spirit, 
whereby convincing us of our 
sin and misery, enlightening 
our minds in the knowledge of 
Christ, and renewing our wills, 
he doth persuade and enable us 
to embrace Jesus Christ, free- 
ly offered to us in the gospel. 
The Hopkinsians assert, that 
"effectual calling consists in 
God's creating in the hearts of 
sinners, by his own immediate 
energy, a willingness to be sav- 
ed.''' They teach, that all God 
performs by his holy spirit is to 
make them willing to do, what 
they are reallv able to do before. 

The Calvinistsmaintain, that 
the best actions of good men 
are blended with imperfection ; 
but some of the most eminent 
of the Ilopkinsian divines teach 
that every moral exercise of a 



• The Hopkinsians say, that " atonement and redemption are widely differ- 
ent in their nature and effects ; the former sets open the door of mercy, the 
latter applies the benefits of Christ." See the Triangle, p. 62 ' 



HOP 



117 



HUG 



renewed person, is either per- 
fectly good or perfectly evil.* 

Seventhly, on justification. 
The Calvinists maintain, that 
" justification is an act of God's 
free grace, wherein he pardon- 
eth all our sins, and accepteth 
us as righteous in his sight, 
only for the righteousness of 
Christ, imputed to us and re- 
ceived by faith alone." The 
Hopkinsians teach that, though 
the righteousness of Christ is 
the only ground of a sinner's 
justification, his righteousness 
is not transferred to them. Ac- 
cording to their system, neither 
sin nor holiness can be trans- 
ferred, either from Adam to his 
posterity, or from Christ to his 
people. 

Eighthly, on the christian 
graces. The Calvinists main- 
tain, that true faith in Christ 
is the beginning of spiritual life, 
and the foundation of all the 
other christian graces. The 
Hopkinsians assert, that re- 
pentance is previous to faith ; 
and that love comprehends in 
its essence all the christian 
graces. 

The reader may compare the 
standard works of the Calvin- 
ists and Hopkinsians, from 
which the general collective sen- 
timents of each denomination 
may be known. Thrfre are so 
many shades of difference be- 
tween Calvinists and Hopkin- 
sians ; and Hopkinsians differ 
so much among themselves, 



that it is next to impossible to 
draw the line between them, so 
as to do perfect justice to all. 

Those who wish to see a more 
detailed account of the real and 
verbal differences between Cal- 
vinists and Hopkinsians, may 
consult Ely's Contrast, Wil- 
son's Letters to Ely, the Trian- 
gle, a Series of Numbers upon 
Three Theological Points, &c. 
published at New York, 1816— 
1817, and Wilson on the atone- 
ment, published at Philadel- 
phia, 1817. 

HUGONOTS, or Hugue- 
nots, a name given by way of 
contempt to the reformed, or 
protestant Calvinists in France, 
about 1560. The name is va- 
riously derived ; some take it 
from a gate in Tours, called 
Hugon, where they first assem- 
bled; others from a faulty 
French pronunciation of the 
German word eidgnossen 9 or 
confederates ; and others from 
the first words of their original 
protest, or confession of faith, 
« Hue nos venimus" &c. The 
persecution which these people 
underwent has scarcely its par- 
allel in history; in 1572, up- 
wards of 70,000 of them were 
butchered in various parts of 
France, on the memorable eve 
of St. Bartholomew ; nor were 
their sufferings much mitigat- 
ed till HenrylV. in 1598, pub- 
lished the edict of Nantz, which 
secured them the free exer- 
cise of their religion. But in 



* This doctrine is not held universally among the Hopkinsians ; but it is ad* 
vocated by Dr. Emmons and Dr. Strong. 



HUS 



118 



HUT 



1685 this edict was cruelly and 
suddenly revoked by Louis 
XIV. when the persecution a- 
gain began ; their churches 
were demolished, their estates 
confiscated, their persons in- 
sulted by the bigoted soldiery ; 
and after the loss of innumera- 
ble lives, 500,000 of them were 
driven into exile in foreign 
countries.* 

^HUMANITARIANS, a 
term applied to those modern 
Socinians who maintain with 
Dr. Priestley the simple human- 
ity of Christ ; or that Jesus was 
« a mere man, the son of Jo- 
seph and Mary, and naturally 
as fallible and peccable as Mo- 
ses, or any other prophet/'f 
See Socinians and Unitarians. 

*IIUSSEYITES, a name 
appropriated to the admirers of 
Mr. Joseph Hussey. formerly of 
Cambridge, a learned but ec- 
centric divine. His principal 
peculiarities of opinion were — 
theprc-existenceof Christ's hu- 
man soul, or rather of a spirit- 
ual or glorious body, in which 
lie appeared to the patriarchs, 
&c his high supra-lapsarian 
notions of the divine derives, 
and his objection to all offers 
or invitations to unconverted 
sinncrs.-j: See Siipra-lapsfiriaiis 
and Crispifcs. 

HUSSITES, the followers*! 
John Huss, an eminent divine 
of Bohemia* II<' adopted the 
opinions of Wicklif£ ami de- 



fended them before the coun- 
cil of Constance, who con- 
demned him as an heretic ; and 
he heroically suffered martyr- 
dom in the cause of the ref- 
ormation, a. d. 1415. His 
death however excited an open 
rebellion, and his followers, un- 
der the heroic Fiska, became 
very formidable both to the 
emperour and the pope, until 
they at length divided and were 
overcome.^ 

HUTCHINSONIANS, the 
followers of John Hutchinson, 
Esq. a very learned, ingenious, 
and laborious layman of York- 
shire, in the last century. After 
receiving a liberal education, he 
was appointed successively 
steward to Mr. Bathurst, the 
Earl of Scarborough, and the 
Duke of Somerset. In these 
situations he paid particular at- 
tention to mineralogy and fos- 
sils, and formed that fine col- 
lection, afterwards bequeathed 
by Dr. Woodward to the uni- 
versity of Cambridge. He soon, 
however, confined his attention 
to scripture philosophy, and 
from the sacred writings alone 
formed that system which is 
usually called by his name. His 
writings make twelve volumes 
in octavo, published successive- 
ly between the years 1784 and 

1*748. 

Mr. Hutchinson begins with 
discarding what is usually cal- 
led natural religion, and de- 



' MosIh i;n, vol. iii p, 404 — 448. new cd. 
| Priestley's Defence of Unitarianism for 1806, p. 101, 102. 
i Hussey'fl « Uory of Christ unveiled— Operations of grace, but no offers, Sec. 
; Mfotbehn, vol. It. p. 384 — vol. v.]). 1 IT- 



HUT 



119 



HUT 



rives all his science from the 
Hebrew scriptures, which he 
considers as the fountain of true 
knowledge, both in philosophy 
and religion. 

The Hebrew he considers as 
the primitive language of man- 
kind, and revealed immediate- 
ly from heaven ; but the points 
and accents he totally discards, 
considering the Jews as bad 
guides in the study of the old 
testament. To every Hebrew 
root he affixes one radical idea, 
which he supposes to pervade 
all its forms ; and for this rad- 
ical idea he trusts more to his 
own ingenuity and industry in 
examining the sacred books, 
than to either lexicographers or 
translators, as will be seen in 
the following instances. 

The Hebrew name of God, 
which he calls Meim, he con- 
siders as strictly plural, and re- 
ferring to the persons of the 
trinity \ and the construction of 
the noun plural with the verb 
singular, (which is an hebra- 
ism,) he views as referring to 
the unity of the divine essence. 

A considerable point of phi- 
losophy is founded on the He- 
brew Shemim, or names of the 
celestial fluid, in the three con- 
ditions of fire, light, and spir- 
it; these he explains as the 
primary emblems of the trini- 
ty ; observing that the Father 
is called in scripture ** a con- 
suming fire/ 5 (Deut. iv. 24.) 
the Son *« the true light," (John 
L 0.) and the name of third per- 
son is the Holy Spirit — the same 
word in the sacred languages 



(as in some others) signifying 
both spirit and wind, or the air 
in motion. 

It should have been remark- 
ed that Mue, the participle of 
Meim, isby Mr. Hutchinson ap- 
propriated to the second person 
of the trinity ; and as he thinks 
the noun plural means the swear- 
ers, or the sacred persons bound 
by oath in covenant for man's 
redemption ; so by Mue he un- 
derstands that person on whom 
the curse of the oath fell, (for he 
supposes every oath to imply a 
curse or penalty,) namely, the 
Son of God incarnate to bear 
" the curse" for our salvation. 

The word berith, usually 
translated covenant, he sup- 
poses to mean strictly the puri- 
fier ; and, instead of " making 
a covenant," he would read 
" cutting off a purifier," allud- 
ing to the Lord Jesus, who is 
compared to " a refiner's fire," 
and to " fuller's soap," (Mai. 
iii. 2.) as being the great puri- 
fier of his people. 

Another term of mysterious 
import in this system is that of 
Cherubim, which he does not 
refer to the angelic orders ; but 
considers the cherubic form, 
namely, the ox, the lion, and 
the eagle, as typical, firstly of 
the trinity of nature, (as Mr. 
Hutchinson speaks,) namely, 
fire, light, and air; and sec- 
ondly, as referring to the sa- 
cred trinity of persons in the 
godhead; and the junction of 
the lion and man, in this em- 
blematic figure, he understands 
as pointing out the union of the 



HUT 



120 



HYP 



human nature to the Son of 
God, who is called •• the lion 
of the tribe of Judah." 

Thus, from these and some 
few other radical words, Mr. 
Hutchinson founds, not only a 
peculiar theology, but a system 
of philosophy materially differ- 
ent from that of Sir Isaac New- 
ton. Sir Isaac supposes a vac- 
uum in nature, but Mr. Hutch- 
inson a plenum ; conceiving the 
whole system of nature a vast 
sphere, in the centre of which 
is placed the sun : this he con- 
siders as an orb of fire, emitting 
light to the extremities of the 
system, where it is condensed 
into air, (or material spirit,) 
and reverting back to the sun, 
as it approaches its source is 
melted (or rather ground) into 
light and fire. In the immense 
distance of the circumference of 
this system he places the fixed 
stars ; but admits no other so- 
lar system than one, beyond 
the limits of which he conceives 
there can be nothing beside out- 
er and utter darkness. 

It is an axiom with Mr. 
Hutchinson, that all our ideas 
are borrowed from external ob- 
jects ; hence his science is a 
kind of allegorical philosophy ; 
and he has a peculiar way of 
spiritualizing the scriptures in 
reference to scientific objects — 



as for instance, the cherubim 
in the tabernacle and temple, 
as above explained. 

It is impossible here to pro- 
duce (much less examine) the 
various scriptures on which 
Mr. Hutchinson and his fol- 
lowers rest their hypothesis; 
the inquisitive reader will refer 
to the authorities below. It 
may be proper to add, that they 
adopt the copernican (which 
they esteem the spiritual) sys- 
tem of the heavens, and confirm 
their notion of the indentity of 
fire, light, and air, by the mod- 
ern experiments in electricity. 

In expounding the old testa- 
ment, particularly the psalms, 
the Hutchinsonians follow the 
Cocceians, (which see) and con- 
sider Jesus Christ and his re- 
demption as the sum and sub- 
stance of the scriptures.* 

HYPSISTARII, worshippers 
of the most high, [t^/e-r«s,] a de- 
nomination in the fourth centu- 
ry ,whose doctrine is reported to 
have been an assemblage of pa- 
ganism, Judaism, and Christi- 
anity. They adored the most 
high God with the christians ; 
but they also revered fire and 
light with the pagans, and ob- 
served the sabbath and the dis- 
tinction of meats with the jews. 
They are supposed by some to 
be a branch of the Massalians.] 



• Hutchinson's Works, vol. iii. p. 10, &c. Spearman's Inquiry, p. 260. — 
273. Hodge's Klilm, p. 35. Lie's Sophron, vol. i p. 31 ; vol. iii. p. 663. 
Jones 1 Lectures, p. 9, 10. Skinner's E< xlesiastical History of Scotland, vol. 
ii. p. 673 — 676. Forbes' Works. Pike's l'hilosophia Sacra. 

| Encyclopedia, vol. ix. p. 48 



JAN 



121 



JAN 



I$J 



JACOBITES, a denomina- 
tion of eastern christians in the 
sixth and seventh centuries, so 
denominated from Jacob Bar- 
deus, or Ranzalus, a disciple 
of Eutyches and Dyoscorus. 
His doctrines spread in Asia 
and Africa to that degree, that 
the denomination of the Euty- 
chians was swallowed up by 
that of the Jacobites, which al- 
so comprehended all the Mono- 
physites of the East ; i. c. such 
as acknowledged but one na- 
ture, and that human, in Jesus 
Christ ; including the Armeni- 
ans and Abyssinians. They 
denied the doctrine of the trin- 
ity, and made the sign of the 
cross with one finger, to inti- 
mate the oneness of the god- 
head. 

The Jacobites are of two 
sects ; some following the rites 
of the Latin church, and others 
continuing separated from the 
church of Rome.* 

The name Jacobites was used 
in England in the seventeenth 
century as a political distinc- 
tion, to mark the adherents of 
king James II. who were also 
called Nonjurors. A term very 
near this, viz. Jacobins, was 
used also to designate the vio- 
lent party in the French revo- 
lution, on account of their hold- 
ing their meetings in a convent 
of Jacobins in Paris. 

JANSENISTS, a denomina- 
tion of Roman Catholics in 



France, which was formed in 
the year 1640. They follow 
the opinions of Jansenius, bish- 
op of Ypres, from whose writ* 
ings the following propositions 
are said to have been extract- 
ed : — 1. That there are divine 
precepts, which good men, not- 
withstanding their desire to ob- 
serve them, are nevertheless 
absolutely unable to obey ; nor 
has God given them that meas- 
ure of grace which is essential- 
ly necessary to render them 
capable of such obedience. — 2. 
That no person, in this corrupt 
state of nature, can resist the 
influence of divine grace, when 
it operates upon the mind. — 3. 
That, in order to render human 
actions meritorious, it is not 
requisite that they be exempt 
from necessity ; but that they 
be free from constraint. — 

4. That the semi-pelagians err 
greatly, in maintaining that 
the human will is endowed with 
the power of either receiving 
or resisting the aids and influ- 
ences of preventing grace.— -* 

5. That whoever affirms that Je- 
sus Christ made expiation, by 
his sufferings and death, for 
the sins of all mankind, is a 
Semi-Pelagian. Of these prop- 
ositions Pope Innocent X. con- 
demned the first four as hereti- 
cal, and the last as rash and 
impious. But he did this with- 
out asserting that these were 
the doctrines of Jansenius, or 



Encyclopedia, vol. ix. 



16 



JAN 



122 



JAP 



even naming him, which did 
not satisfy his adversaries, nor 
silence him. The next pope 
however, Alexander VII. issued 
a bull, in which he denounced 
the said propositions as erro- 
neous doctrines of Jansenius, 
which excited no small troubles 
in the Gallican church. 

This denomination was also 
distinguished from many of 
the Roman Catholics by their 
maintaining that the holy scrip- 
tures and public liturgies should 
be given to the people in their 
mother tongue : and they con- 
sider it as a matter of import- 
ance to inculcate upon all chris- 
tians, that true piety does not 
consist in the periormance of 
external devotions, but in in- 
ward holiness and divine love. 
It is said that Jansenius read 
through the whole of St. Au- 
gustine's works, ten, and some 
parts thirty times ; from these 
he made a number of exccrj)ta 9 
which he collected in his book 
called Jlugiistinus. This he had 
not the courage to publish ; but 
it was printed after his death, 
and from it his enemies, the 
Jesuits, extracted the proposi- 
tions above named** 

Many of tin 4 Jansenists were 
distinguished for their strict 
piety, and severe moral disci- 
pline. They complained of the 
corruptions of the church of 
Koine, censured the licentious- 
ness of the monastic orders, and 
insisted upon the necessity of 
reforming their discipline, ac- 
cordingtolhe rules of sanctity, 



abstinence, and self-denial, that 
were originally prescribed by 
their respective founders. The 
celebrated Pascal, and Quesnel, 
men eminently distinguished for 
talents and piety, are ranked a- 
mong the followers of Janse- 
nius. 

JAPANESE. The religion 
of these islanders is pagauism, 
but under some peculiar forms 
which deserve attention — par- 
ticularly, the Sinto, the ancient 
idol worship of the Japanese : 
the Budso, or foreign idol wor- 
ship, introduced from China : 
and the religion of their philos- 
ophers and moralists. 

I. The Sintos have some ob- 
scure and imperfect notions of 
the immortality of the soul, and 
a future state of bliss and mis- 
ery ; they acknowledge a su- 
preme Being, who, they believe, 
dwells in the highest heaven : 
and admit of some inferiour 
gods, whom they place among 
the stars ; but they worship and 
invoke those gods alone whom 
they believe to have the sove- 
reign control over this world, 
its elements, productions, and 
animals : these, they suppose, 
will not only render them hap- 
py here, but, by interceding for 
them at the hour of death, may 
procure them a happy condi- 
tion hereafter. Hence their 
dairis, or ecclesiastical chiefs, 
being thought lineally descend- 
ed from the eldest and most fa- 
voured sons of these deities, are 
supposed lobe the true and liv- 
ing image? of their gods. 



sheim, vol. ii. p. 2G2. Toplady, Hist. vol. i. p. 92. 



JAP 



123 



JAP 



The Sintos believe that the 
soul, after quitting the body, is 
removed to the high sub -celes- 
tial fields, seated just beneath 
the dwelling places of their 
gods ; that those, who have led 
a good life, find immediate ad- 
mission, while the souls of the 
wicked are denied entrance, and 
condemned to wander till they 
have expiated their crimes. 

Their religion enjoins ab- 
staining from blood, from eat- 
ing flesh, or being near a dead 
body ; by which a person is for 
a time rendered unfit to visit 
their temples, or to appear in 
the presence of their gods. It 
also commands a diligent obser- 
vance of the solemn festivals, in 
honour of their gods ; pilgrim- 
ages to the holy places at Isje ; 
that is, to the temple of Tensio- 
Dai-Sin, the greatest of all the 
gods of the Japanese ; and the 
chastisement and mortification 
of their bodies. But few of them 
pay much regard to this precept. 

II. The most essential points 
of the Budso religion are : That 
the souls of men and animals 
are immortal, and both of the 
same substance, differing only 
according to the bodies in which 
they are placed : and that af- 
ter the souls of mankind have 
left their bodies, they shall be 
rewarded or punished accord- 
ing to their behaviour in this 
life. Their god Armida is the 
sovereign commander of heav- 
en; and is considered as the 
patron and protector of human 
souls ; and to obtain his appro- 
bation it is requisite to lead a 



virtuous life, and do nothing 
contrary to the five command- 
ments, viz. not to kill any 
thing that has life j not to steal ; 
not to commit fornication ; to 
avoid lies, and all falsehood ; 
not to drink strong liquors. 
On the other hand, all tiie 
vicious, priests or laymen, are, 
after death, sent to a 'place 
of misery, to be tormented 
for a certain time, according 
to the nature and number of 
their crimes, the number of 
years they lived upon earth, 
and their opportunities for be- 
coming good and virtuous. Yet 
they suppose the miseries of 
these unhappy souls may be 
greatly alleviated by the vir- 
tuous lives of their relations and 
friends, and still more by the 
prayers and offerings of the 
priests to their great god, Araii- 
da. When vicious souls have 
expiated their crimes, they are 
sent back to animate such vile 
animals as resembled them in 
their former state of existence. 
From the vilest of these trans- 
migrating into other and no- 
bler, they, at last, are suffered 
again to enter human bodies ; 
and thus have it in their pow- 
er, by their virtue and piety, to 
obtain an uninterrupted state of 
felicity. 

III. The philosophers and 
moralists pay no regard to any of 
the forms of worship practised 
in the country. Their supreme 
good consists in the pleasure 
and delight which arise from the 
steady practice of virtue. They 
do not admit of the transmigra- 



JAS 



1£4 



JER 



lion of souls ; but believe that 
there is an universal soul difl us- 
ed throughout nature, animat- 
ing all things, and rcassuming 
departed souls as the sea does 
the rivers. This universal spi- 
rit they confound with the su- 
preme Being. 

These philosophers consider 
self-murder as an heroic and 
commendable action, when it is 
the only means of avoiding a 
shameful death, or of escaping 
from the hands of a victorious 
enemy. They conform to the 
general custom of their country, 
in commemorating their deceas- 
ed parents and relations, by pla- 
cing all sorts of provisions on 
a table provided for the pur- 
pose; but they celebrate no oth- 
er festivals, nor pay any re- 
spect to the gods of the country.* 
*JASIDEANS, or Jesdjeaivs, 
a wandering, ferocious tribe, 
who frequent the Gordian moun- 
tains and the deserts of Curdis- 
tan, in Persia. Their priests 
and rulers are clothed in black, 
and the rest in white garments. 
Their religion seems composed 
of some fragments of Chris- 
tianity, mingled with their an- 
cient pagan superstitions. They 
pay especial marks of respect, if 
not worship, to the etil genius, 
whom they call Caruhin or 
Chmibin, and consider him as 
one of the chief ministers of the 
great and good supreme Being, 
the chief object of tbtir worship, 
and whose name in the Persian 



language is Jazid or Jesdan, 
from which their denomination 
is probably derived. f 

IBERIANS, certain eastern 
christians of Iberia, now call- 
ed Georgia, whose tenets are 
said to be the same with those 
of the Greek church. 

*ICONOCLASTES, image 
breakers ; (from £<***, an im- 
age, and kXccuv^ to break ;J was 
a name given to those w r ho re- 
jected the use of images in 
churches, and on certain occa- 
sions vented their zeal in de- 
stroying them. The great op- 
position to images began under 
Bardanes, a Greek emperour in 
the beginning of the eighth cen- 
tury ; and was revived again, a 
few years after, under Leo the 
Isaurian, who issued an edict 
against image worship, which 
occasioned a civil war in the 
islands of the Archipelago, and 
afterwards in Italy ; the Roman 
pontiffs, and the Greek coun- 
cils, alternately supporting it. 
At length images were reject- 
ed by the Greek church, which, 
however, retains pictures in 
churches, though her members 
do not worship them ; but the 
Latin church not only retain- 
ed images, but made them the 
medium, if not the object of 
their worship, and are there- 
fore called Icotwdubi, or Iconol- 
(ttm\ i. e. image-worshippers.^ 
See Thmobortsi. 

^JERUSALEM. See New- 
Jerusalem Church. 



* Payne's Epitome of Hist. vol. ii. p. 36 — 53« 

f Mosbeim, vol. iv. p. 370. 

i Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 262, and 887. 



JES 



125 



JES 



JESUITS, a celebrated re- 
ligious order in the Roman 
Catholic church, founded by Ig- 
natius Loyola,a Spanish knight, 
who was born of a respectable 
family at Loyola, in the province 
Guipuscoa, in Spain, in 1491. 
The early part of his life was 
spent in the military service, in 
which he acquired great reputa- 
tion. But when his leg was brok- 
en by a cannon ball, at the seige 
of Pampeluna, in 1521, he em- 
ployed himself during his con- 
finement, in reading " the Lives 
of the Saints, 5 ' which made 
such a strong impression on 
his mind, that he determined to 
renounce the world, to make a 
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and 
to devote himself to the service 
of God. From this time he led 
a most austere life, and was in- 
defatigable in his exertions to 
make converts. His efforts 
were at length crowned with 
success. In the year 1537, he 
gained a number of followers, 
who bound themselves by five 
rules, which inculcated the du- 
ties of self-mortification and 
charity, enforced the precepts 
and practice of virtue, and pro- 
fessed to labour assiduously, 
without the hope of reward, for 
the glory of God. They called 
themselves, " The Society of 
Jesus/' Their zeal was in- 
creased by the sanction of the 
Roman pontiff, Paul III. who 
by his bull, dated March 1545, 
permits them to alter, annul or 
revive, at pleasure, as times, 
places, and circumstances may 
require, their constitutions 



made, or to be made. In an- 
other bull dated November, 
1549, he gives the general com- 
plete jurisdiction over the mem- 
bers, and power over the funds 
of the society, together with the 
privilege of sending any indi- 
vidual of the order wherever 
he may please. The Pope ap- 
pointed Loyola the first gener- 
al of this society. He died in 
1556, and was canonized 1609. 
At that time all the miracles o£ 
the apostolic ages were said to 
have been wrought by the influ- 
ence of his superiour sanctity. 

As the object of the order 
was to obtain influence in all 
quarters of the globe, and a- 
mong all classes of men, they 
naturally became missionaries, 
school-masters, and confessors* 
And in a short time they were 
almost the exclusive, and cer- 
tainly the most distinguished 
instructors of youth in every 
catholic country. They culti- 
vated learning, because they 
perceived its use in governing 
mankind, and were not only 
theologians, but grammarians,, 
critics, mathematicians, phi- 
losophers, and poets. They 
were the confessors of almost 
every catholic monarch, and 
person of distinguished rank. 

Their wealth, notwithstand- 
ing " a vow of poverty," which 
they found little difficulty in 
evading, was immense. They 
obtained a license to trade with 
the nations whom they under- 
took to convert. They made 
themselves masters of a very 
large province in South Amer- 



JES 



126 



JES 



ka. And thus, although when 
Loyola, in 1540, petitioned the 
Pope to authorize the institu- 
tion of the order, he had only 
ten disciples, in the year 1608 
the number of Jesuits amounted 
to 10,581. In 1710, the order 
possessed 24 professed houses, 
59 houses of probation, 341 
residences, 612 colleges, 200 
missions, 150 seminaries, and 
the society consisted of 19,998 
members. 

They were expelled from 
England by proclamation, 2 
James I, in 1604 — from Ven- 
ice, in 1606— Portugal, 1759 — 
France, 1764 — Spain and Sic- 
ily, 1 767 j and finally the cel- 
ebrated Pope Clement XIV. in 
July 1773, signed a brief, which 
suppressed this famous order. 

The doctrinal points, which 
are ascribed to the Jesuits, in 
distinction from many others of 
the Roman communion, are as 
follow.* 

I. This order maintained, 
that the Pope is infallible ; 
that he is the only visible 
source of that universal and un- 
limited power, which Christ 
has granted to the church : that 
all bishops and subordinate Fil- 
lers derive from him alone, the 
authority and jurisdiction, with 
which they are invested; and 
that he alone is the supreme 
lawgiver of that sac red commu- 
nity ; a law-giver, whose edicts 
and commands it is, in the 
highest degree, criminal to op- 



pose, or dispute, or disobey. 

II. They comprehend with- 
in the limits of the church, not 
only many, who live separate 
from the communion of Rome, 
but even extend the inheritance 
of eternal salvation to nations, 
that have not the least knowl- 
edge of the christian religion, 
or of its divine author ; and 
consider as true members of 
the church, open transgressors 
who profess its doctrines. 

III. The Jesuits maintain, 
that human nature is far from 
being deprived of all power of 
doing good : that the succours 
of grace are administered to all 
mankind, in a measure suffi- 
cient to lead them to eternal 
life and salvation : that the op- 
erations of grace offer no vio- 
lence to the faculties and pow- 
ers of nature, and therefore 
may be resisted : and that God, 
from all eternity, has appoint- 
ed everlasting rewards and pun- 
ishments, as the portion of men 
in a future world, not by an ab- 
solute, arbitrary, and uncondi- 
tional decree, but in conse- 
quence of that divine and un- 
limited prescience, by which he 
foresaw the actions, merits, and 
characters, of every individual. 

IV. They represent it, as a 
matter of perfect indifference, 
from what motives men obey 
the laws of God, provided these 
laws are really obeyed ; and 
maintain, that the service of 
those, who obey from the fear 



• This is the representation, which is given by the adversaries of this or- 
der. The compiler of this work had not an opportunity to see any of" the Jesu- 
its' writings in their own defence. 



JES 



127 



JES 



of punishment, is as agreeable 
to tjie Deity, as those actions, 
which proceed from a principle 
of love to him and his laws. 

V. They maintain, that the 
sacraments have in themselves 
an instrumental and efficient 
power; by virtue of which 
they work in the soul, indepen- 
dently on its previous prepara- 
tion or propensities, a disposi- 
tion to receive the divine grace. 

VI. The Jesuits recommend 
a devout ignorance to such, as 
submit to their direction, and 
think a christian ought to yield 
an unlimited obedience to the 
orders of the church. 

The following maxims are 
said to be extracted from the 
moral writings of this order : 

I. That persons truly wicked 
and void of the love of God, 
may expect to obtain eternal life 
in heaven, provided, that they 
be impressed with a fear of the 
divine anger, and avoid all hei- 
nous and enormous crimes, 
through the dread of future 
punishment. 

II. That those persons may 
transgress with safety, who 
have a probable reason for 
transgressing, i. e. any fair ar- 
gument or authority in favour 
of the act they are inclined to 
perform. 

III. That actions intrinsical- 
ly evil, and directly contrary 
to the divine law, may be inno- 
cently performed by those, 
who have so much power over, 

* By philosophical sin, the Jesuits mean, an action contrary to the dictates 
of nature and right reason, which is done by a person, who is either absolute. 
ly ignorant of God, or does not think of him, during 1 the time, this action is 
committed. 



their own minds, as to join, 
even ideally, a good end to this 
wicked action. 

IV. That philosophical sin* 
is of a very light and trivial 
nature, and does not deserve 
the pains of hell. 

V. That the transgressions 
committed by a person, blind- 
ed by the seductions of tumul- 
tuous passions, and destitute of 
all sense and impression of re- 
ligion, however detestable and 
heinous they may be in them- 
selves, are not imputable to the 
transgressor before the tribunal 
of God ; and that such trans- 
gressions may be often as in- 
voluntary, as the actions of a 
madman. 

VI. That the person, who 
takes an oath, or enters into a 
contract, may, to elude the force 
of the one, and obligation of 
the other, add to the form of 
the words that express them, 
certain mental additions and 
tacit reservations. 

This entire society is com- 
posed of four sorts of members, 
viz. novices, scholars, spiritual 
and temporal coadjutors, and 
professed members. Beside 
the three ordinary vows of pov- 
erty, chastity, and obedience, 
which are common to all the 
monastic tribes, the professed 
members are obliged to take a 
fourth, by which they solemnly 
bind themselves to go, without 
deliberation or delay, wherev- 
er the pope shall think fit to 



JES 



128 



JEW 



send them. They are govern- 
ed by a general, who has four 
assistants. The inferiours of 
this society are obliged entire- 
ly to renounce their own wills, 
and abide by his directions. 
Their enterprize has led them 
into Paraguay, a delightful pro- 
vince of South America j — here 
they have founded a govern- 
ment, and instructed and civil- 
ized the native Indians. 

The general himself is res- 
ponsible to none but the pope. 
He nominates all the function- 
aries of the order, and can re- 
move them at pleasure. Eve- 
ry novice, who offers himself 
as a candidate for entering into 
the order, is obliged to confess 
to his superiour, or to a person 
appointed by him, not only his 
sins and defects, but to discov- 
er the inclinations, the passions, 
and the bent of his souK The 
society, not satisfied with pene- 
trating in this manner into the 
inmost recesses of the heart, 
directs each member to observe 
the words and actions of 
novices; they are constituted 
spies upon their conduct ; and 
are bound to disclose every 
thing of consequence concern- 
ing them to the superiour. In 
order that this scrutiny into 
their character may be as com- 
plete as possible, a long novici- 
ate must expire, during which 
they pass through the several 
gradations of ranks in the soci- 
ety, and they must have attain- , 



ed the full age of thirty three 
years, before they can be^ad- 
mitted to take tiie final vows, 
by which they become members 
of this society. 

The restoration of the or- 
der of Jesuits took place in 
1814, by a bull of the present 
pope Pius VII. The apostolic 
constitutions of pope Paul III. 
and others are revived in favour 
of this society; and in short 
they are placed in the samo 
condition of privilege and pow- 
er, as they anciently enjoyed. 
The bull of pope Clement XIV. 
abolishing the order, is ex- 
pressly abrogated.* 

JEWS, a name derived from 
the patriarch Judah, and from 
the predominance of that tribe 
in after ages, given to all the 
descendants of his father Jacob, 
who was also called Israel. Of 
the ancient Jews, the most au- 
thentic accounts may be found 
in the scriptures. The belief 
of the modern Jews is express- 
ed by their great Rabbi Mai- 
monides, of the eleventh centu- 
ry, in the following thirteen ar- 
ticles : 

I. That God is the creator of 
all things ; that he guides and 
supports all creatures ; that, lie 
has done every thing ; and that 
he still acts, and shall act dur- 
ing the whole of eternity. 

II. That God is one, There 
is no unity like his. He alone 
hath been, is, and shall be, e- 
tcrnally our God, 



• Moftheim, vol. Hi, p. 465 ; iv. p. 354, 355. Hist, of Don In gnat ins. Pascal's 
Letters Donceming 1 the Jesuits, 3 roll 8vo. Robertson's Charles V. vol. ii. p. 
431. Edinburgh Encyclopedia. Christian Observer, March 1815. February 
1S17\ Buck's TlieoL Diet 



JEW 



129 



JEW 



III. That God is incorpore- 
al, and cannot have any mate- 
rial properties ; and no cor- 
poreal essence can be compared 
with him. 

IV. That God is the begin- 
ning and end of all things ; and 
shall eternally subsist. 

V. That God alone ought to 
be worshipped $ and none be- 
sides him adored. 

VI. That whatever has been 
taught by the prophets is true. 

VII. That Moses is the fa- 
ther and head of all contempo- 
rary doctors, and those, who 
lived before, or shall live after 
him. 

VIII. That the law was giv- 
en by Moses. 

IX. That the law shall nev- 
er be altered; and God will 
give no other. 

X. That God knows all the 
thoughts and actions of men. 

XI. That God will regard 
the works of all those, who 
have performed what he com- 
mands, and punish those, who 
have transgressed his laws. 

XII. That the Messiah is to 
come, though he tarry a long 
time. 

XIII. That there shall be a 
resurrection of the dead, when 
God shall think fit. 

The modern Jews adhere 
still as closely to the Mosaic 
dispensation, as their dispersed 
and despised condition will per- 
mit them. Their service con- 
sists chiefly in reading the law 
and the prophecies in their 
synagogues, together with a va- 
riety of prayers. They use no 
* 17 



sacrifices since the destruction 
of the temple. They repeat 
blessings and particular prais- 
es to God, not only in their 
prayers, but on all accidental 
occasions, and in almost all 
their actions. They go to 
prayers three times a day in 
their synagogues. Their ser- 
mons are not made in Hebrew, 
which few of them now per- 
fectly understand, but in the 
language of the country where 
they reside. The passages of 
scripture and sentences from 
the doctors are, however, quot- 
ed from the Hebrew and ex* 
plained. 

The Jews are strictly pro* 
hibited from all vain swearing, 
and pronouncing any of the 
names of God without necessi- 
ty. They abstain from meats 
prohibited by the levitical law j 
for which reason, whatever they 
eat must be dressed by those of 
their own nation, in a manner 
peculiar to themselves. In the, 
observance of their religious 
festivals they perform similar 
ceremonies to those which were 
practised by their ancestors. 
All their rites, precepts, and 
ceremonies which are not con- 
tained in the pentateuch, are 
founded upon and derive their 
authority from the Talmud, 
There is, however, some varia- 
tion in their customs and cere- 
monies, and in the liturgies 
which the nation have made use 
of at different times, and in va- 
rious countries. But in the 
principal points of belief and 
practice they all agree. 



JEW 



130 



JEW 



This people acknowledge a 
twofold law of God, — a written 
and unwritten one ; the former 
is contained in the five books 
of Moses ; the latter they pre- 
tend has been handed down 
from him by oral tradition. (See 
Cabbalists.) They assert the 
perpetuity of their law, togeth- 
er with its perfection. They 
deny the accomplishment of the 
prophecies in the person of Je- 
sus Christ ; alleging that the 
Messiah is not yet come ; and 
that he will make his appear- 
ance with the greatest pomp 
and grandeur, subduing all na- 
tions, and subjecting them to 
the house of Judah ; and mak- 
ing Jerusalem the metropolis 
of his kingdom. 

They say that " during the 
Messiah's reign, the world will 
be restored to its former glory, 
a new heaven and new earth 
will appear ; the former will 
pass away, mankind will recov- 
er their primitive glory, and 
will be above the angels ; satan 
and his band will be des- 
troyed. The seventh day of 
the creation was the sabbath, 
and that dav only received a 
blessing, and was set apart for- 
ever to be observed as a holy 
day ; which was a type of the 
great sabbath ; i. e. the world 
of the. Messiah, which also will 
he called the blessed world."* 



When it is urged that the 
prophets predicted the Messi- 
ah's low condition and suffer- 
ings, the Jews talk of two Mes- 
siahs ; one, Ben Ephraim, who 
they grant to be of a mean and 
afflicted condition in this world ; 
the other, Ben David, who shall 
be a victorious and powerful 
prince. 

This people maintain,that the 
souls of the righteous enjoy the 
beatific vision of God in para- 
dise, and that the souls of the 
wicked are tormented in hell 
with fire and other punish- 
ments. They suppose, that the 
sufferings of the most atrocious 
criminals are of eternal dura- 
tion, while others remain only 
for a limited time in purgato- 
ry, which does not differ from 
hell with respect to the place, 
but to the duration. They pray 
for the souls of the dead, and im- 
agine that many are delivered 
from purgatory on the great 
day of expiation. 

The Rabbinists or modern 
Pharisees form the bulk of this 
nation. The two branches of 
Portuguese and German Jews 
are of this description, which 
includes all who admit tradi- 
tions, kc. They entertain an 
implacable hatred to the Kara- 
ites, or Canutes, who adhere 
strictly tot lie text of Moses, and 
reject the Cabbala. 



# This paragraph is extracted from Rabbi Crool's " "Restoration of Israel," 
published 1814. 1W this work it appears, that the mode of thinking" and arg-uin£ 
among the Jews of the present day is similar to that, which m ent among" 

their ancestors. Tne Jews in the lime of our Saviour, like those of the pr 
day, expected not a suffering hut a triumphant Messiah ; and that his appear- 
ance and the restoration of Israel are coeval, and closely connected with each 
other. 



JEW 



131 



JEW 



There are still, however, a 
few Sadducees in Africa; and 
in the East some remains of 
the ancient sect of the Samari- 
tans — at Gaza, Damascus, and 
Grand Cairo. 

With regard to the ten tribes, 
Mr. Basnage supposes they 
still subsist in the East ; and 
Dr. Buchanan observes, that 
* It has been sufficiently ascer- 
tained by the investigation of 
the learned in India, that the 
Affghan and Pyran nations con- 
sist of the descendants of the 
ten tribes." 

It is impossible to fix the 
number of people the Jewish 
nation is at present composed 
of. But in a pamphlet recently 
published, entitled, « Of the 
Jews in the nineteenth century " 
there is an approximative cal- 
culation, though of course in 
some measure hypothetical, of 
all the Jews spread over the 
face of the earth. Our author 
estimates them at 6,598,000 ; 
of which there were 1,000,000 
in Poland, before the division 
of that country in 1772; 200,000 
in Russia,comprising Wallachia 
and Moldavia; 500,000 in the 
states where the German lan- 
guage is spoken ; 80,000 in 
Holland, and the low countries ; 
5,000 in Sweden and Denmark ; 
50,000 in France; 50,000 in 
England, of whom 12,000 are 
in London ; 200,000 in the 
states where the Italian lan- 
guage is spoken ; 10,000 in 



Spain and Portugal ; 3,000 in 
the United States of America ; 
4,000,000 in the Mahometan 
States of Europe, Asia, and Af- 
rica; 500,000 in Persia, and 
the rest of Asia, comprising 
China and India. 4 * 

The Jews however., since the 
destruction of Jerusalem, have 
never been able to regain a 
permanent settlement in Judea, 
or indeed in any country on 
earth ; though there is scarce- 
ly any part of the globe where 
they are not to be found. In 
most countries, they have been 
terribly massacred. In Chris- 
tendom, they have been despis- 
ed,calumniated, oppressed, ban- 
ished, executed, and burned, 
and in general, have suffered 
more cruel treatment from 
christians, than even from Pa- 
gans and Mahometans. For a 
detail of their sufferings the 
reader is referred to Basnage's 
History of the Jews. Tovey's 
Anglia Judaica, &c.^ 

The situation of this people 
has been greatly meliorated 
during the last and present cen- 
tury. 

France has allowed them the 
rights of citizens, which induc- 
ed many of the most wealthy 
among them to fix their resi- 
dence in that country. In the 
city of Paris they have three 
synagogues and a consistory, 
composed of three grand rab- 
bis. England, Holland, Poland 
and Prussiaf tolerate and pro- 



* See a Pamphlet, styled " The Correspondent," consisting* of letters be- 
tween eminent persons of France and England. London, 1817. 

f In Berlin, the Jews have enjoyed singular honours, as men of genius 
and study. The late Moses Mendelsohn, by the force of his reasoning, has been 



JEW 



132 



JEW 



tect them. In the United States 
of America they have never 
been persecuted, but have been 
indulged in all the rights of 
citizens. 

In England, energetic at- 
tempts are used to effect their 
conversion. In 1809, the Lon- 
don society was formed M for 
promoting Christianity amongst 
the Jews. 55 The means adopt- 
ed by the society are the exten- 
sive distribution of bibles and 
religious tracts among the 
Jews ; establishing weekly and 
quarterly lectures to be preach- 
ed to them, the latter of which 
are styled demonstration ser- 
mons, or sermons demonstra- 
tive of our Lord Jesus Christ 
as the true Messiah ; — the es- 
tablishing a charity school for 
Jewish children, among whom 
boys of promising talents and 
piety are prepared for the min- 
istry. And, above all, trans- 
lating the new testament into 
pure biblical Hebrew, to be dis- 
tributed among the dispersed of 
Israel in every part of the globe. 
The management of the 
society is at present in the 
hands of the Episcopalians. 
From intelligence received in 
1616, it appears, "that much 



has been effected in the very 
few years of the society's op- 
erations. A correspondence has 
been opened with pious and 
learned christians in various 
parts of the world ; a transla- 
tion of the new testament into 
pure biblical Hebrew has been 
in part accomplished ; a large 
number of Jewish children have 
been educated, with the full 
consent of their parents, in the 
christian faith; an episcopal 
chapel for the Jews has been 
erected in that quarter of the 
city where they most abound ; 
courses of lectures for their 
benefit have been preached in 
London, and various other pla- 
ces in England ; many works 
connected with Jewish litera- 
ture have been published ; and 
above all, some adult Jews, it i& 
hoped, have been truly convert- 
ed, and admitted by baptism into 
the christian church. The for- 
eign correspondence of the soci- 
ety seems to indicate that a great 
change is silently operating 
throughout the continent; and 
the society are encouraged to 
hope and expect a final bless- 
ing on their endeavours to pro- 
mote the salvation of the lost 
sheep of the house of Israel.* 



surnamcd the Jc wish Socrates ; and bv the amenity of his diction, the Jewish 
Plato. JUoHi, u Jewish physician, was the first naturalist of the age : 1I< 

ifessor, with fourhundred auditors; Mainon, a profound metaphysician. 
Then- are Jewish poets, and Jewish artists, of eminence-; and, which pc: 

no where hut in Berlin, ;. J< w ish acack my of* sciences, and a, Jewish Lit- 
Journal, composed in Hebrew. Sec Vaurier, or Sketches of the Times, 
vol. ii n. 249. 

* I. History of , p. 110, 11\ 227, 746, &c. Encyclopedia, 

vol. is. p. 14.) Jewish R y, vol i.p. 210 j vol. ii p. 289,320 Levi's 

M>i ('mors Restoration of Israel. Monthly M«£f 
w, 1796 Asiatic Researches, vol ii.p. 76. AN orks of Sir William Jones, 
vol i. p. 336. Christian Observer, 181 



ILL 



133 



ILL 



IKONOBORTSI, a small 
party of dissenters from the 
Greek church, who so far re- 
tain their zeal against images, 
that they will not suffer sculp- 
tures of any kind, or even pic- 
tures in their places of worship; 
and oppose all superstitious 
reverence to the buildings 
themselves, saying, the Al- 
mighty does ' not dwell in tem- 
ples made with hands/* See 
Icoiioclastes. 

ILLUMINATI, or Ixxitmi- 
nees, i. e. the enlightened, a 
term in the primitive church 
applied to such as had been in- 
structed and baptized, but has 
since been adopted by different 
sects and parties. Such a sect 
appeared in Spain in 1575. 
They were charged with main- 
taining, that mental prayer and 
contemplation had so intimate- 
ly united them to God, that 
they were arrived to such a 
state t>f perfection, as to stand 
in no need of good works, or 
the sacraments of the church ; 
and that they might commit 
the grossest crimes without sin. 

After the suppression of the 
Illuminati in Spain, there ap- 
peared a denomination in 
France, which took the same 
name. It is said they main- 
tained, that one Anthony Buck- 
Oct, a friar, had a system of be- 
lief and practice revealed to 
him, which exceeded every 
thing Christianity had yet been 
acquainted with : that, by this 
method, persons might, in a 
short time, arrive at the same 

* Pmkcrton's Greek Church, p. 334. 



degrees of perfection and glo- 
ry, to which the saints and the 
blessed Virgin have attained : 
and this improvement might be 
carried on, till our actions be- 
came divine, and our minds 
wholly given up to the influ- 
ence of the Almighty. They 
said further, that none of the 
doctors of the church knew any 
thing of religion ; that St. Pe- 
ter and St. Paul were well 
meaning men, but knew noth- 
ing of devotion ; that the whole 
church lay in darkness and un- 
belief ; that every one was at 
liberty to follow the suggestions 
of his conscience ; that God re- 
garded nothing but himself; 
and that, within ten years, 
their doctrine would be receiv-v 
ed all over the world ; that there 
would be no more occasion for 
priests, monks, and other relig- 
ious distinctions. 

But the modern Illuminees 
are said to be a secret socie- 
ty, founded in 1776, by Dr. 
Adam Weishaupt^ professor 
of canon law in the univer- 
sity of Ingoldstadt ; a man of 
learning and genius, of great 
activity and insinuating ad- 
dress. He is charged with 
aiming at the same object that 
Voltaire, Diderot, and others 
had attempted some years be- 
fore, namely, the abolition of ^ 
Christianity, and the establish- 
ment of a philosophical infidel- 
ity. 

The mysteries of this sect 
are asserted to be comprehend- 
ed in the following summary. 



ILL 



134 



ILL 



« Liberty and equality are the 
essential rights that man in his 
original and primitive perfec- 
tion received from nature. 
Property struck the first blow 
at equality j political societies 
or governments were the first 
oppressors of liberty : the sup- 
porters of governments and 
property are the religious and 
civil laws ; therefore to rein- 
state man in his primitive rites 
of equality and liberty they be- 
gin by destroying these. And 
it is asserted, that the society 
have executed, to an alarming 
degree, its plan for exterminat- 
ing Christianity and destroying 
government and social order. 
The means of effecting this was 
the French revolution, which 
was in a groat measure brought 
about by the secret influence of 
this society, and extended over 
the greater part of Europe. 
This afforded the Frencli phi- 
losophers the opportunity of 
disseminating their infidel prin- 
ciples among the lower classes 
of society. 

The society of the Illuminati, 
says the Abbe Barruel, is divid- 
ed into two grand classes, and 
each of them is again subdivid- 
ed into lesser degrees, propor- 
tionate to the progress of the 
adepts. 

The first (lass is that of 
preparation, which contains lorn- 
degrees ; those of norcict, of 
minerval, of minor Illumvnee, 
and major Mummer. Some in- 
termediate degrees belong to 
this class. The second class 
is that of the mysteries, and 



this is subdivided into the 
greater and less mysteries. 
The latter comprehend the 
priesthood and administration 
of the sect, or the degrees of 
priests, of regents, and of prin- 
ces. 

In the greater mysteries are 
comprised the two degrees of 
magi, or philosophers, and of the 
man king. The elect of the lat- 
ter compose the council and de- 
gree of Jlreopagites. 

In all these classes, and in 
every degree, there is a part of 
the utmost consequence, and 
which is common to all the 
brethren. It is that employ- 
ment known in the society's 
code of laws, by the appellation 
of brother insinuator, or recruit* 
er. The whole strength of the 
sect depends on this part ; for 
it is this which furnishes mem- 
bers for the different degrees. 
The insinuators, or recruiters 
of this society, are sent by 
their superiours to different 
towns and provinces, and to 
distant countries. They are 
directed carefully to conceal 
their being llluminees, and to 
make the knowledge of human 
nature their particular study. 
One of the professors of Illu- 
minism gives the following in- 
struction relating to this kind 
of science : " The novice must 
be attentive to trifles, for in 
frivolous occurrences a man is 
indolent, and makes no effort to 
act a part, so that his real char- 
acter is then acting alone." 
This assiduous and long con- 
tinued study of men, enables 



ILL 



1S5 



ILL 



the possessor of such knowl- 
edge to act witli men, and by 
his knowledge of their charac- 
ters to influence their conduct. 
For such reasons, this study is 
continued during the whole 
progress through the order. 

The object of the Uluminees 
is said to be, to enlist in every 
country such as have frequent- 
ly declared themselves discon- 
tented with the usual institu- 
tions ; to acquire the direction 
of education, of church manage- 
ment, of the professional chair, 
and of the pulpit ; to bring 
their opinions into fashion by 
every art, and to spread them 
among young people, by the 
help of young writers ; to get 
under their influence reading 
and debating societies, review- 
ers, booksellers, and post-mas- 
ters ; journalists, or editors of 
news-papers, and other period- 
ical works ; and to insinuate 
some of their fraternity into 
all offices of instruction, hon- 
our, profit, and influence, in 
literary, civil, and religious in- 
stitutions. It is reported to be 
one of their established max- 
ims, that " the end sanctifies the 
means." 

Men of high reputation in 
Great Britain, and on the con- 
tinent of Europe, have given 
ample testimony of their belief 
in the accounts which are giv- 
en of Illuminism. Bishop Por- 
teus, in his charge to the cler- 
gy of his diocess, in the years 
1798 and 1799, has the follow- 
ing passage : « It now appears 
from undoubted evidence, col- 



lected from the most authentic 
sources, and produced about 
the same time, by two different 
authors, of different countries 
and religions, and writing with- 
out the least concert or commu- 
nication with each other, that 
there have in fact subsisted in 
the heart of Europe certain 
sects of men, distinguished by 
various fanciful names, and va- 
rious mysterious rites and cer- 
emonies, but all concurring in 
one common object, namely, 
the gradual overthrow, not 
merely of all religion, but of 
all civil government and social 
order throughout the world." 

The Chevalier Von Hamel- 
berg, in the Prussian service, 
translated the work of profes- 
sor Robison into German, and 
presented it to his sovereign, 
who expressed the highest ap- 
probation of his performance. 

On the other hand, the histo- 
ries of the Abbe Barruel and 
professor Robison have been 
called in question by men of 
learning and extensive infor- 
mation. In particular, the 
celebrated Gregoire, in his 
Histoire Des Sectes Religien- 
ses, gives a very different ac- 
count of the Illuminati. He 
supposes, that the project of 
Weishaupt and his co-opera- 
ters was at first praise-worthy. 
It, said he, "embraced the plan 
of diffusing light, union, chari- 
ty, and tolerance ; of abolishing 
the slavery of the peasantry, 
the feudal rights, and all those 
privileges, which in elevating 
one portion of the community 



INC 



136 



IND 



degraded the other ; of dissem- 
inating instruction among the 
people, of causing merit to tri- 
umph, of establishing individu- 
al and political liberty, and 
gradually and without a shock, 
of meliorating the social or- 
der." 

Our author admits, however, 
that the society was too little 
rigid with regard to those it 
admitted. "It is not," says 
he, * rare in every society to 
find men who, not being ani- 
mated with its spirit, coun- 
teract its operations ; and that 
of the Illuminees had such men. 
If they had been only negative 
members in that way they were 
injurious. Every thing, which 
has the air of mystery, awak- 
ens suspicion, and favours ca- 
lumny, and calumny exhausted 
itself with regard to the invisi- 
ble society As soon as the 
alarm was sounded, it was 
spread abroad, that this socie- 
ty, numerous, and of high re- 
pute, had no other aim than to 
monopolize all the lucrative 
and honourable posts ; to ex- 
tinguish the torch of truth, to 
overturn all government and 
to destroy all religion."* 

*IN( ORIU rniULES, a 

;.uill party of the Kutvrhians, 

who maintained that Christ's 

body was tuuirrautible even be- 
fore its resurrection, so that it 
did not need the support of food, 
fee nor was naturally subject 



to mortality. They were op- 
posed to the Corrupticolce. 

INDEPENDENTS, a de- 
nomination of protestants in 
England and Holland, origin- 
ally called Brownists. They de- 
rive their name from main- 
taining that every particular 
congregation of christians has 
an entire and complete power 
of jurisdiction over its mem- 
bers to be exercised by the el- 
ders of each church within it- 
self; independent of the au- 
thority of bishops, synods, pres- 
byteries, or any other ecclesi- 
astical assemblies. 

This denomination appeared 
in England in the year 1616. 
John Robinson, a Norfolk di- 
vine, was considered as their 
founder. He possessed sincere 
piety, and no inconsiderable 
share of learning. Perceiving 
defects in the denomination of 
the Brownists, to which he be- 
longed, he employed his zeal 
and diligence in correcting 
them, and in new-modelling the 
society. Though the Indepen- 
dents considered their own form 
of ecclesiastical government as 
of divine institution* and as ori- 
ginally introduced by the au- 
t hority of the apostles ;-nay , by 
the apostles themselves : yet, 
they did not think it necessary 
to condemn other denomina- 
tions : but acknowledged that 
true religion might flourish in 
those communities which were 



* For farther accounts of tins society tfie reader is referred to Barruel's 
Memoirs of Jacobinism, Pro£ Robison's Proofs of a conspiracy against all the 

religion! and governments in Europe, and Greguirc's Llistoire Dcs Sectc 
:scs. 



IND 



137 



IND 



under the jurisdiction of bish- 
ops, or the government of pres- 
byteries. They approved also 
of a regular and educated min- 
istry, nor is any person among 
them permitted to speak in pub- 
lic, before he has submitted to 
a proper examination of his ca- 
pacity and talents, and has 
been approved of by the church 
to which he belonged. 

Their grounds of separation 
from the established church are 
different from those of the oth- 
er puritans. Many of the lat- 
ter objected chiefly to certain 
rites, ceremonies, vestments, or 
forms, or to the government of 
the church, while yet they were 
disposed to arm the magistrate 
in support of the truth ; and re- 
gretted and complained, that 
they could not on these accounts 
conform to it. But Robinson, 
and his companions, not only 
rejected the appointments, of 
the church on these heads, but 
denied its authority to enact 
them ; contending that every 
single congregation of chris- 
tians was a church, and inde- 
pendent of all legislation, save 
that of Christ; standing in need 
of no such provision or estab- 
lishment as the state can be- 
stow ; and incapable of solicit- 
ing or receiving it. Hence they 
sought not to reform the church, 
but chose to dissent from it. 
They admitted there were ma- 
ny godly men in its commun- 
ion, and that it was reformed 
from the grossest errours of 
popery, but thought it still want- 
ed some things essential to a 

18 



true church of Christ ,- in par- 
ticular a power of choosing its 
own ministers, and a stricter 
discipline among its members. 

In support of the scheme of 
congregational churches, this 
denomination observe tbat the 
word eKKknrU, which we trans- 
late church, is always used in 
the scriptures to signify a single 
congregation, or the place where 
a single congregation meets. 
Thus that unlawful assembly at 
Ephesus, brought together a- 
gainst Paul by the craftsmen, is 
called a church. (Acts xix. 29 
— 41.) The word, however, is 
generally applied to a more sa- 
cred use : but still it signifies a 
single congregation. The whole 
body of the disciples at Corinth 
is indeed called the church, but 
spoken of as coming together 
into one place. (1 Cor. xiv. 23.) 
The whole nation of Israel is 
also named a church; but it 
was no more than a single con- 
gregation, for it had but one 
place of public worship, viz. 
first the tabernacle, and after- 
wards the temple. The catho- 
lic church of Christ, his holy 
nation and kingdom, is likewise 
a single congregation, having 
one place of worship, viz. hea- 
ven, wherein all the members 
hold communion ; and will, at 
last, form one general assembly 
and church ofthejirst-born, whose 
names are written in heaven. 

The independents allege, that 
the church of Corinth had an 
entire judicature within itself. 
For Paul thus addressed them : 
Do not ye judge them, which are 



1ND 



138 



1ND 



within? (1 Cor. v. xii.) So 
they were not dependent upon 
the apostle, to come to him for 
a sentence, nor upon the elders 
of other associated churches.* 
See Brorcnists and Congrega- 
tionalists. 

This denomination is suppos- 
ed to be of late considerably on 
the increase ; partly by acces- 
sions from the Calvinistic Me- 
thodists, and partly by their 
extension into Scotland and 
Ireland. The creed of the In- 
dependents is generally Calvin- 
istic, though with considerable 
shades of difference ; and ma- 
ny in Scotland and Ireland have 
symbolized with the Glassiies 
or Sandemanians. 

INDIANS, a term alike ap- 
plicable to the natives of In- 
dia and America; but as we 
have considered the former un- 
der the name of Hindoos, we 
shall confine this article to the 
latter ; and begin with the na- 
tives of North America, notic- 
ing some striking peculiari- 
ties of their ancient pagan no- 
tions and idolatries. 

The aborigines of JV%w Eng- 
land not only believed in a plu- 
rality of gods, who made and 
govern the several nations of 
the world, but they made deities 
of every thing they imagined 
to be great, powerful, benefi- 
cial, or hurtful to mankind ; 
vet they conceived an almighty 
Bring, who dwells in the south- 
west regions of the heavens, 



to be superiour to all the rest, 
1 his almighty Being they call- 
ed Kichtan, who at first, ac- 
cording to their tradition, made 
a man and a woman out of a 
stone ; but upon some dislike 
destroyed them again ; and 
then made another couple 
out of a tree, from whom de- 
scended all the nations of the 
earth : but how they came to 
be scattered and dispersed into 
countries so remote from one 
another, they cannot tell. They 
believed their supreme God to 
be a good being, and paid a sort 
of acknowledgment to him for 
plenty, victory, and other bene- 
fi ts : B ut there is another pow- 
er, which they call hobamocko, 
(i. e. the devil,) of whom they 
stood in greater aw r e, and wor- 
shipped merely from a princi- 
ple of fear. The immortality of 
the soul was in some sort uni- 
vcrally believed among them. 
When good men die, the} said, 
their spirits go to Kichtan,. 
where they meet their friends, 
and enjoy all manner of pleas- 
ures. When wicked men die, 
they go to Kichtan also ; but are 
commanded to walk away, and 
to wander about in restless 
discontent and darkness for- 
ever.f 

Mr. Brainerd, who was a 
pious and successful missionary 
among the Indians on the Sus- 
quehannah and Delaware riv- 
ers, in 1744, gives the follow- 
ing account of their religious 



* Mosheim, vol. iv p. 526. Ketl'l History of the Puritans, vol, ill. p. 14? 
Goodwin's Works, vol. iv. p. 71 Bncy. ToL ix. p. 170. 
t Neal's History of New England, vol. i [>« 33—35. 



1ND 



139 



IND 



sentiments : — « After the com- 
ing of the white people, the In- 
dians in New Jersey, who once 
held a plurality of deities, sup- 
posed there were only three, 
because they saw people of 
three kinds of complexion, viz. 
whites, negroes, and them- 
selves. It is a notion pretty 
generally prevailing among 
them, that it was not the same 
God that made them who made 
us j but that they were created 
after the white people ; and it 
is probable, they suppose; their 
God gained some special skill 
by seeing the white people 
made, and so made them better. 
With regard to a future state 
of existence, many of them im- 
agine, that the chichung, i. e. 
the shadow, or what survives 
the body, will at death go south- 
ward, to some unknown place, 
and enjoy some kind of happi- 
ness — such as hunting, feasting, 
dancing, or the like ; and nev- 
er be weary of these pleas- 
ures. They believe that most 
will be happy ; and that those 
who are not so, will be punish- 
ed only with privation, being 
excluded from the walls of the 
good world, where happy spir- 
its reside. These rewards and 
punishments they suppose to de- 
pend entirely on their beha- 
viour towards mankind, and to 
have no reference to any thing 
which relates to the worship of 
the supreme Being."* 

The original inhabitants of 
Canada, like other heathen, had 



an idea of a supreme Being ; 
whom they considered as the 
creator and governour of the 
world. It is said that most of the 
nations which speak the Algon- 
quin language give this being the 
appellation of the Great Hare, 
but some call him Michabou, and 
others Mahocan. They believe 
that he was born upon the wa- 
ters, together with his whole 
court, who were composed of 
four-footed animals, like him- 
self ; that he formed the earth 
of a grain of sand taken from 
the bottom of the ocean ; and 
that he created men of the bo- 
dies of dead animals. Some 
mention a god of the waters, 
who opposed the designs of the 
Great Hare, who is called the 
Great Tiger. They have a third 
called Matcomek, whom they 
invoke in the winter season. 

The Jlgreskoui of the Hurons, 
and the Jlgreskouse of the Iro- 
quois, are, in the opinion of these 
nations, the sovereign being, 
and go d of war. These Indians 
do not give the same original to 
mankind with the Algonquins ; 
for they do not ascend so high 
as the first creation. Accord- 
ing to them, there were in the 
beginning six men in the world ; 
but they cannot tell who placed 
them there. 

The gods of the Indians are 
supposed to have bodies, and to 
live much in the same manner 
as themselves ; but without any 
of the inconveniences to which 
tl*ey are subject. The word 



* Brainerd's Journal. 



1ND 



140 



IND 



spirit 9 among them, signifies 
only a being of a more excel- 
lent nature than others. 

According to the Iroquois 9 in 
the third generation there came 
a deluge, in which not a soul 
was saved ; so that, in order to 
re-people the earth, it was ne- 
cessary to change beasts into 
men. Besides the first Being, 
or Great Spirit, they hold an 
infinite number of genii, or in- 
feriour spirits, both good and 
evil, who have each their pecu- 
liar form of worship. They as- 
cribe to these beings a kind of 
immensity and omnipresence, 
and constantly invoke them as 
the guardians of m ankind ; and 
they only address themselves to 
the evil genii, to beg of them to 
do them no hurt. They believe 
in the immortality of the soul, 
and say that the region of their 
everlasting abode lies so far 
westward, that the souls are 
several months in arriving at it, 
and have vast difficulties to sur- 
mount. The happiness that 
they hope to enjoy is not be- 
lieved to be the recompense of 
virtue only, but to have been a 
good hunter, brave in war, &c. 
are the chief merits which en- 
title them to their paradise:* 
this, they and other American 
natives describe as a delightful 
country, blessed with perpetual 
spring, whose forests abound 
with game; whoso rivers swarm 
with fish ; where (amine is nev- 
er felt, but uninterrupted plenty 



shall be enjoyed without labour 
or fatigue.f 

Most of the natives of South 
America have an idea of a su- 
preme Being, whom they call 
the Grand Spirit, by way of ex- 
cellence ; and whose perfections 
are as much superiour to oth- 
er beings, as the fire of the sun 
is to elementary fire. They be- 
lieve this omnipotent Being is 
so good, that he could not do 
evil to any one, even if he were 
inclined. That, though he cre- 
ated all things by hi a will, yet 
he had under him spirits of an 
inferiour order, who, by his as- 
sistance, formed the beauties of 
the universe ; but that man was 
the work of the Creator's own 
hands. These spirits are, by 
the Natches, termed free ser- 
vants, or agents; but at the 
same time they are as submis- 
sive as slaves : they are con- 
stantly in the presence of God, 
and prompt to execute his will. 
The air, according to them, is 
full of other spirits of more mis- 
chievous dispositions, and these 
have a chief, who was so emi- 
nently mischievous, that God 
Almighty was obliged to con- 
fine him ; and ever since, those 
aerial spirits do not commit so 
much mischief as they did be- 
fore, especially if they are en- 
treated to be favourable. For 
this reason the savages always 
invoke them, when they want 
either rain or fair weather. 
They give this account of the 



* Charlevoix's Voyage to North America, vol ii. p. 141—155. 
| Robertsqn's History of South America, vol. i. p. 387. 



IND 



141 



IND 



creation of the world, viz, that 
God first formed a little man of 
clay, and breathed on his work; 
and that he walked about, grew 
up, and became a perfect man : 
but they are silent as to the 
creation of women. * 

The greatest part of the na- 
tives of Louisiana had formerly 
their temples, as well as the 
Natches j and in all these tem- 
ples a perpetual fire was pre- 
served f 

The aborigines of East and 
West Florida own a supreme 
benevolent Deity, and a subor- 
dinate one, who is malevolent j 
neglecting the good god, who 
does no harm, they bend their 
whole attention to soften the 
latter, who, they say, torments 
them day and night.:): 

The Apalachians, bordering 
on Florida, worship the sun, but 
sacrifice nothing to him which 
has life : they hold him to be 
the parent of life, and think he 
can take no pleasure in the de- 
struction of any living crea- 
ture. Their devotion is exert- 
ed in perfumes and songs.§ 

The divinities of the ancient 
inhabitants of Mexico were 
clothed with terrour, and de- 
lighted in vengeance. The fig- 
ures of serpents, of tigers, and 
of other destructive animals, 
decorated their temples. Fasts, 
mortifications, and penances, 
all rigid, and many of them ex- 



cruciating to an extreme de- 
gree, were the means which 
they employed to appease tiie 
wrath of the gods. But of all 
offerings, human sacrifices were 
deemed the most acceptable.!] 
At the dedication of the great 
temple at Mexico, it is reported 
there were 60 or 70.000 human 
sacrifices. The usual amount 
of them was about 20,000.^] 

The city of Mexico is said to 
have contained nearly 2000 
small temples, and 360 which 
were adorned with steeples. 
The whole empire of Mexico 
contained above 40,000 tem- 
ples, endowed with very con- 
siderable revenues. For the 
service in the grand temple of 
Mexico itself, above 5000 
priests were appointed ; and the 
number in the whole empire is 
said to have amounted to near- 
ly a million . The whole priest- 
hood, excepting that of the con- 
quered nations, was governed 
by two high-priests, who were 
also the oracles of the kings. 
Beside the service in the tem- 
ple, their clergy were to instruct 
the youth, to compose the calen- 
ders, and to paint the mytholog- 
ical pictures. The Mexicans 
had also priestesses, but they 
were not allowed to offer up sa- 
crifices. They likewise had 
monastic orders, especially one, 
into which no person was admit- 
ted under sixty years of age.** 



* Modern Universal History, vol. xl. p. 374. 

f Charlevoix's Voyages, vol. ii. p. 273. t Kaimes* Sketches, vol. iv. p. 155, 

§ Kaimes* Sketches, vol. iv. p. 216. 

Robertson's Hist, of South America, vol. ii.p. 384, 385* 

1 Priestley's Lectures on History, p. 44 0. 
** Critical Review, vol. liv.p. 312. 



1NB 



142 



IND 



Notwithstanding the vast de- 
population of America, a very 
considerable number of the na- 
tive race still remains both in 
Mexico and Peru. Their set- 
tlements iii some places are so 
populous, as to merit the name 
of cities. In the three audi- 
ences into which New Spain is 
divided, there are at least two 
millions of Indians ; a pitiful 
remnant indeed of its ancient 
population; but such as still 
forms a body of people, supe- 
riour in number to all the other 
inhabitants of this vast coun- 
try.* 

The sun, as the great source 
of light, of joy, and fertility in 
the creation, attracted the prin- 
cipal homage of the native Pe- 
ruvians. The moon and stars, 
as co-operating with him, were 
entitled to secondary honours. 
They offered to the sun a part 
of those productions, which his 
genial warmth had called forth 
from the bosom of the earth, 
and reared to maturity* They 
sacrificed, as an oblation of 
gratitude, some of the animals 
Who won 4 indebted to his inilu- 
ence for nourishment. They 
presented to him choice speci- 
mens of those WQrkfi of ingenu- 
ity, whkh his light had guided 
the heart of man in forming. 
But the InrasncwT stained his 
altars with human h!ood ; nor 
could they conceive that their 
beneficent father* the sun, would 
be delighted with such horrid 
vie tin 



The savage tribes of Guiana 
believe the existence of one su- 
preme Deity, whose chief attri- 
bute is benevolence; and to 
him they ascribe every good 
which happens. But as it is 
against his nature to do ill, they 
believe in subordinate malevo- 
lent beings, like our devil, who 
occasion thunders, hurricanes, 
and earthquakes ; and who are 
the authors of death and diseas- 
es, and of every misfortune4 

The natives of Amazonia 
have a vast variety of idols, 
whom they consider as subor- 
dinate to one supreme Being ; 
but of that Being they have 
very confused notions. They 
stand in great awe of their 
priests, and hold them in the 
utmost veneration. They have 
a particular house, or rather 
hut, for the celebration of their 
ceremonies, and this is to them 
what others call a church or 
temple. Here the priests ad- 
dress themselves to their gods, 
and receive answers from their 
oracles. When they go to war, 
they apply to their priests for 
assistance against their ene- 
mies, and the first thing the 
priests do, is to curse them 
Upon their going out to war 
they hoist at the prow of their 
canoes that idol, under whose 
auspices they look for victory; 
hut, like too many called chris- 
tians, tin*) never pray to their 
gods, except in cases of difficul- 
ty, when they feel their need 
of divine assistance or support. 



* RoIx--rts(,n\s History of America, p. 891 • 

f Robertson's History of America, vol. ii. p. 309, 310. 

| K&io)£8, roh i. p I SO* 



ING 



143 



JOA 



INDWELLING SCHEME. 

See Pre-existents. 

*INFIDELS, or unbelievers 
in divine revelation, and con- 
sequently in Christianity, may 
be divided into two great class- 
es — Deists and Atheists, which 
see. 

INGHAMITES, the follow- 
ers of Mr, Ingham, a respec- 
table gentleman of the north of 
England, who was educated at 
Queen's College, at the same 
time with Mr Hervey j and in 
1732 joined the society of the 
first Methodists at Oxford. He 
accompanied the Mess. Wesleys 
on their first voyage to Georgia, 
but returning the next year, 
attached himself to the United 
Brethren. Sometime after this, 
itinerating in the north of Eng- 
land he formed several church- 
es on the Independent plan. 
But in 1760, Mr. Ingham and 
some of his co-adjutors met 
w r ith the writings of Messrs. 
Glass and Sandeman, and 
adopting some of their notions, 
both as to doctrine and disci- 
pline, began to split into par- 
ties, and many went over to 
their communion. Some thou- 
sands, however, adhered to Mr. 
Ingham, of which there are 
yet considerable remains. 
They admitted members by lot, 
after a public declaration of 
their experiences, which intro- 
duced much confusion and con- 
tention. Mr. Ingham pleaded 
very strongly for the doctrine 
of imputed righteousness ; but 



objected to the systematic Ian* 
guage generally adopted in 
speaking of distinct persons 
in the trinity. He practised 
infant baptism, and approved 
many things in the writings of 
Mr. Sandeman. This denomi- 
nation receive members by the 
laying on of hands ; practise 
the love feasts, and the kiss of 
charity. But they did not 
think with Sandeman that a 
plurality of elders was necessa- 
ry to church ordinances. 5 * 

INVISIBLES, a name of 
distinction given to the disci- 
ples of Osiander, Flacius, Illy- 
ricus, Swenkfeld, &c. because 
they denied the perpetual visi- 
bilitv of the church.f 

JOACHIMITES; a denom- 
ination which appeared about 
the commencement of the thir- 
teenth century ; so called from 
Joachim, abbot of Sora, in Ca- 
labria. He foretold the destruc- 
tion of the church of Rome, and 
the promulgation of a new and 
more perfect gospel, in the age 
of the Holy Ghost, by a number 
of poor and austere ministers, 
whom God was to raise up and 
employ for that purpose. For 
he divided the world into three 
ages, relative to the three dis- 
pensations of religion which 
were to succeed each other. 
The two imperfect ages, viz. 
the age of the old testament, 
which was that of the Father, 
and the age of the new, which 
was under the administration 
of the Son, were, according to 



* Sketch of the Scotch Independents and the Imrhamite churches. 
t Collier's Hist. Diet. 



JOH 



144 



JOH 



his doctrine, now passed ; and 
the third age, even that of the 
Holy Ghost, was near at hand.* 

JOHNSONIANS, the fol- 
lowers of Mr. John Johnson, 
many years a baptist minister 
at Liverpool, of whom there 
are still several congregations 
in different parts of England. 

The following positions are 
extracted from Mr. Johnson's 
writings : 

I. That true Faith is not « a 
duty which God requires of 
man ;" but a grace of u so dif- 
ferent a nature, that it is not 
possible to be made a duty ; or 
[nor] possible to be required of 
any created being."f Conse- 
quently faith is not, in his view, 
a requirement of the law of God, 
nor does the law " require any 
thing properly relating to eter- 
nal salvation f'\ nor is that un- 
belief which is the reverse of 
this, (or the want of faith,) a sin, 
but a "vacuity,'' or mere " non- 
entity ."§ 

II. That faith, though " an 
active principle," is not an act, 
or " action," or •• work" of the 
soul of man, but " the opera- 
tion of God ;"ll whence it would 
seem to follow, that it is not 
the soul Which believes, but 
this principle of grace within 
him. 

III. That the holiness of the 
first man, Adam, was inferiour 
to that of the angels, much 
more to that of the saints who 



are raised above the angels; 
that the first man being * ear- 
thy," not only in his body, but 
his whole person, his holiness 
could be « only such a resem- 
blance of, and nearness to God, 
as an earthy nature was capa- 
ble of."fl 

IV, That gospel ministers 
are not to preach the law,** 
neither " moral duties ;" nor 
" to exhort persons to faith, re- 
pentance, love, holiness, &c." 
which blessings proceed alone 
from the grace of God :ff nor 
"to caution and warn them 
against sinful practices, to teach 
and instruct them in the regu- 
lation of their lives, &c. Our 
commission (says Mr. J.) is 
not to preach the law, but the 
gospel."^ 

V. That "the blessings of 
spiritual grace and eternal life, 
being secured in Christ prior 
to the fall, were never lost;" 
and consequently, could not be 
" restored." Adoption not ris- 
ing out of salvation, but, on the 
contrary, salvation from adop- 
tion, as being included in it. 
" So that," says Mr. J. " I can- 
not conceive any reason, ac- 
cording to the original consti- 
tution of things, why grace and 
glory might not have taken 
place upon God's elect, accord- 
ing to his everlasting love in a- 
doption, supposing sin or salva- 
tion never [had] a being."§$ 

According to the account 



* Moshcim, vol. iii. p. 66. f F:lllh of God's elect, p. 10. * lb. p. 28. 

* lb. p. 55 || 11). p. 40. T lb. p. 44, 69. ** lb. p. 259. 
tt lb. p. 255. || lb. p. 257, 259. §§ lb. p. 89, 90. 



ISB 



145 



JUM 



given by the anonymous cor- 
respondent of Mr. Evans,* Mr. 
Johnson's followers reject the 
doctrine of the trinity ; but 
maintain the indwelling scheme. 
They deny original sin ; yet 
assert, that no man will saving- 
ly believe the gospel, unless 
brought by the special influence 
of the spirit to receive it. They 
deny the natural immortality 
of the soul ; yet maintain the 
separate existence of the soul 
between death and the resur- 
rection. Respecting the atone- 
ment and perseverance of the 
sainte, they agree with the Cal- 
vinists ; and with other baptists 
as to the mode and subjects of 
baptism. Those who die in 
infancy, they say, will be raised 
to life in a pure state, not to 
inherit the heavenly kingdom, 
but to inhabit the new earth, 
which will be formed after the 
conflagration ; on which, they 
say, Christ and his church 
will reign a thousand years, 
and then be removed to some 
more glorious region. See the 
account of this denomination in 
Evans' Sketch, 12 ed. p. £67. f 
ISRRANIKI, i. e. the multi- 
tude of the elect, a name as- 
sumed by certain dissenters 
from the Russian church, oth- 
erwise called Starovertsi, i. e. 
believers in the ancient faith ; 
but generally called by the 



members of the establishment 
Raskolniki, or schismatics. See 
those names, and also the Rus- 
sian church. 

JUDAIZING Christians. 
The rise of this denomination 
is placed under the reign of A- 
drian. For when this empe- 
rour had razed Jerusalem to its 
foundations, and enacted severe 
laws against the whole body of 
the Jews, the greatest part of 
the christians, who lived in Pa- 
lestine, to prevent their being 
confounded with them, aban- 
doned the Mosaic rites, and 
chose a bishop, named Mark, a 
foreigner by nation, and an al- 
ien from the commonwealth of 
Israel. Those who were strong- 
ly attached to the Mosaic rites 
separated from their brethren, 
and founded at Pera, (a coun- 
try of Palestine*) and in the 
neighbouring parts, particular 
assemblies, in which the law of 
Moses maintained its primitive 
dignity and authority. 

There were, however, in the 
apostolic agejudaizing chris- 
tians, which set Christ and Mo- 
ses upon an equal footing of au- 
thority ; these were afterwards 
divided into two sects, widely 
different both in their rites and 
opinions, and distinguished by 
the names of Naxarenes and 
Ebionites, which see. 

JUMPERS, so called from 



* The above account was given to Mr. Evans by a preacher among" the John- 
sonians 

j- Dr. Priestley maintained that the ancient Hebrew Christians were Naza- 
renes ; and 1 hat the Nazarenes were the same people with the Ebionites, the 
Socinians of early days. See an account of the Controversy between Dr. Priest- 
lv, Dr. Horslev, and others, in General Repositorv, &c. published at Cambridge. 
1812. 

19 



JUM 



146 



JUM 



their practice of jumping during 
the time allotted for religious 
worship and instruction. They 
originated in Wales, about the 
vear 1760, when the Calvinis- 
tic Methodists had made some 
progress in the principality. 
Several of the first preachers in 
that connexion were naturally 
of very warm tempers, and zeal- 
ously engaged in promoting 
their views of religion. Their 
discourses were calculated to 
produce a strong sensation a- 
mong their hearers. Such as 
were ignorant, and at the same 
time of a warm temper, under 
deep impression, gave way to 
their feelings. 'They cried out 
loudly, some uttering one thing 
and some another in the midst 
of the congregation : some clap- 
ped their hands, others shook 
hands one with another, and 
others, rejoicing at the discove- 
ry which the gospel makes of a 
Saviour, began to jump for joy. 
This was taken notice of, and 
ty some considered as an in- 
dication of pious zeal. The 
custom spread like wild-fire. 
Very soon jumping began to be 
c onsidered as a proof that the 
people enjoyed the presence of 
God. Many preachers among 
the independents and baptists 
imitated the methodises, and 
discovered their religious zeal 
by shouting and jumping. 

Instances have also been 
known v\ Wales, where the cler- 
gy were methodistically inclin- 
ed to this jumping* in the par- 
ish churches. This exercise is 
sometimes continued, >\ itli oc- 



casional singing or exhortation 
between, for hours, until the 
strength of the party is quite 
exhausted. 

Mr. Evans relates, that a- 
bout the year 178. , h happen- 
ed to be present accidentally at 
a meeting which terminated in 
jumping. It was held in the 
open air, on a Sunday evening, 
near Newport, Monmouthshire. 
The preacher was one of lady 
Huntingdon's students, who 
concluded his sermon with the 
recommendation of jumping ; 
and to allow him the praise of 
consistency, he got down from 
the chair on which he stood, 
and jumped along with them. 
The arguments he adduced for 
this purpose were, that David 
danced before the ark; and that 
the man, whose lameness was 
removed, leaped and praised 
God for the mercy which he 
had received. He expatiated 
on these topics with uncommon 
fervency, and then drew the in- 
ference, that they ought to show 
similar expressions of joy for 
the blessings Jesus Christ had 
put into their possession. He 
then gave an impassioned 
sketch of the sufferings of the 
Saviour ; and hereby roused 
the passions of a few around 
him into a state of violent agi- 
tation. About nine men and 
'seven women, for some little 
time, rocked to and fro, groan- 
< (1 aloud, and then jumped with 
a kind of frantic fury. Some 
of the audience ilew in all di- 
rections ; others gazed on in 
silent amazement They all 



KAR 



147 



KAR 



gradually dispersed except the 
Jumpers, who continued their 
exertions from eight in the eve- 
ning to near eleven at night. 
They at last kneeled down in 
a circle, holding each other by 
the hand, while one of them 
prayed with great fervour, and 
then, all rising up from off their 
knees, departed. But previous 
to their dispersion, they wildly 
pointed up towards the sky, and 
reminded one another that they 
should soon meet there and be 
never again separated. 

Several of the more zealous 
itinerant preachers in Wales, 
recommended the people to cry 
out Gogourant,(the Welsh word 
for glory,) Amen, &c. &c. to 
put themselves in violent agi- 



tation ; and finally to jump till 
they were quite exhausted, so 
as often to be obliged to fall 
down on the floor, or on the 
field where this kind of worship 
is held. 

Some years since, Mr. W. 
Williams, a blind Welsh poet, 
wrote a pamphlet in defence of 
this practice, which was pat- 
ronized by the abettors of 
jumping in religious assemblies, 
but viewed by the serious and 
grave with disapprobation. It 
appears from late accounts that 
the jumpers are comparatively 
very few, even among the Meth- 
odists ; and those are persons 
of very warm tempers, and an* 
imated manners.* 



K 



^Karaites, or caba- 

ites. This name denotes a 
scripturist,and is given to a Jew- 
ish sect w T hich adhered to the 
literal sense of the old testa- 
ment, and considered the scrip- 
tures as the whole and only 
rule of their faith and practice. 
This denomination w r as given 
them about thirty years before 
Christ, wiien, upon the dissen- 
sion betwixt Hillel, the presi- 
dent of the Sanhedrim, and 
Shammai, the vice president, by 
which their respective pupils 
were divided into two parties, 



betwixt whom there w 7 ere per- 
petual contests ; those that were 
of the opinion of the Karaites, 
sided with the school of Sham- 
mai, and those who were zeal- 
ous for traditions, with that of 
Hillel. According to Dr. Pri- 
deaux, they did not absolutely 
reject traditions, but only re- 
fused them the same authority 
with the written oracles of God. 
They were distinguished from 
the Sadducees, by maintaining 
the doctrines of the immortali- 
ty of the soul, and future re- 
wards and punishments.f A 



* Evans' Tour through Wales, and Bingley's North Wales. Evans' Sketch of 
Religious Denominations, 12 London Edition. 

j- Calmet's Diet, in Caraite, chap, xvi, xvii. Prideaux's Conn, vol. il p. 388. 
Jenning's Lectures. Clarke's Travels, vol. ii. p. 348. 



K1L 



148 



KNI 



considerable number of this 
sect is still found in Turkey, 
and other parts of the East. 

A colony of Karaite jews re- 
side in a fortress in the Cri- 
mea, and enjoy the free exer- 
cise of their ancient customs 
and religious rites. They pre- 
tend to have the text of the old 
testament in its most genuine 
state, and deem it an act of pi- 
ety to copy the bible, or pious 
commentaries upon the text once 
in their lives. Their charac- 
ter is said to be directly oppo- 
site to that which is generally 
attributed to their brethren, be- 
ing altogether without re- 
proach. They pay great at- 
tention to the education of their 
children, who are taught pub- 
licly in the synagogues. Al- 
most all of them are engaged 
in trade or manufactures. 

KEITHIANS, a party that 
separated from the quakers, in 
Pennsylvania, in the year 1691. 
They were headed by the fa- 
mous George Keith, from whom 
they derived their name. Those 
who persisted in their separa- 
tion, after their leader deserted 
them and returned to England, 
practised baptism, received the 
Lord's supper, and kept the 
seventh da} sabbath, whence 
they were called Quaker -Bap- 
tists, and Sabbatarians : but 
they retained the language, 
dress, and manners of the Qua- 
kers.* 

♦KILIIAMITKS; thus the 



Methodists of the new connex- 
ion are sometimes called, from 
Mr. Alex. Kilham, who was a 
distinguished preacher among 
them, and acted as secretary to 
the society. See Methodists. 

*KIRK, The or Church of 
Scotland, is Calvinistic in doc- 
trine, and presbyterian in dis- 
cipline; and has been so from 
the time of the celebrated John 
Knox, the famous Scotch refor- 
mer, who flourished in the six- 
teenth century. The form of 
their worship is very simple, 
without a liturgy and without 
pomp. Scotland contains about 
nine hundred parishes, and as 
many benefices ; they are "pro- 
vided for by patrons, and not, 
in general, elective by the peo- 
ple. See Presbyterians. 

^KNIGHTS : three orders 
of knighthood were instituted 
in the twelfth century for the 
defence of Christianity, and for 
the annoyance of infidels. 1. 
The Knights of St. John of Je- 
rusalem were designed to re^ 
lieve and assist the vast number 
of pilgrims who visited Jerusa- 
lem and the holy land. 2. The 
templars (so called from a pal- 
ace adjoining Jerusalem) were 
purely a military order, who 
were to guard the roads and 
protect the christians from the 
Mahometans. 3. The teuton- 
ic Knights of St. Mary chief- 
ly devoted their service to the 
care of the soldiers wounded in 
the holy wars. The two latter 



• Edwards' Hist, of American Baptists, p. 55—60 



LAB 



149 



LAB 



orders have been long extinct ; 
but the former found an asylum 
in the Isle of Malta.* 

KNIPPERDOLINGS, a 
denomination in the sixteenth 
century, derived from Bertrand 
Knipperdoling, who taught a 
literal millenium ; denied jus- 
tification by faith, original sin, 
and infant baptism : maintain- 
ed that every Christian has au- 



thority to preach and adminis- 
ter the sacraments ; that all 
things ought to be in common, 
&c.f 

KTISTOLATR^E, certain 
of the Monophysites, who 
maintained that the body of 
Christ, before his resurrection, 
was corruptible, like that of 
other men4 



LaBBADISTS, a denom- 
ination in the seventeenth cen- 
tury. Their founder, John 
Labbadie, was a native of 
France, and remarkable for his 
natural eloquence and warm en- 
thusiasm. He was educated in 
the bosom of the church of 
Rome, but in 1630 he embraced 
the protestant religion, and be- 
came a member of the reformed 
church, and performed with 
reputation the ministerial func- 
tions in France, Switzerland, 
and Holland. He at length e- 
rected a new community, who, 
according to the accounts of the 
Labbadists, did not differ from 
the reformed church so much 
in their tenets and doctrines, as 
in their manners and rules of 
discipline. Labbadie, howev- 
er, maintained, that the holy 
scriptures were not sufficient to 
lead men to salvation, without 
certain particular illuminations 



and revelations from the holy 
spirit ,- and that in reading the 
scriptures, we ought to give less 
attention to the literal sense of 
the word, than to the inward 
suggestions of the spirit, and 
that the efficacy of the word de- 
pended upon him that preached 
it; that the faithful ought to 
have all things in common ; that 
there is no subordination or 
distinction of rank in the true 
church of Christ ; that Christ 
was to reign a thousand years 
upon earth; that the contem- 
plative life is a state of grace 
and union with God, and the 
very height of perfection ; that 
the christian, whose mind is con- 
tented and calm, sees all things 
in God, enjoys the Deity, and is 
perfectly indifferent about eve- 
ry thing that passes in the 
world ; and that the christian 
arrives to that happy state by 
the exercise of a perfect self- 



* Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 18—20. N. Ed. 

f Chevrea's Hist, of the World, vol. iii. p, 437. 

I Mosheim, vol. i. p. 471, 472. 



LAT 



150 



LIB 



denial, by mortifying the flesh 
and all sensual affection, and by 
mental prayer. 

Labbadie had the address to 
ingratiate himself with Eliza- 
beth Princess Palatine, and oth- 
er ladies of rank and piety. 
Several persons of distinguish- 
ed talents became members of 
this sect ; among whom was 
the celebrated Anne Maria Se- 
hurman of Utrecht, whose ex- 
tensive erudition rendered her 
so famous in the republic of let- 
ters, during the last century. 1 * 

LAMA, worship of the. See 
Shamanism. 

LAMPETIANS, the follow- 
ers of Lampetius, a Syrian 
monk, who in the seventeenth 
century taught that, as man is 
born free, a christian, in order 
to please God, ought to do no- 
thing by necessity ; and that it 
is therefore unlawful to make 
vows, even those of obedience. 
To this system he is said to 
have added certain tenets of the 
Cai'pocratians, &c.f 

LATITUDINARIANS, a 
name which distinguished those 
in the seventeenth century, who 
Attempted to bring episcopali- 
ans, prcsbylrrians, and inde- 
pendents, into one communion, 
by compromising the difference 
between them. The chief lead - 
ers of this party Mere the great 
Chillin^worth, and John Hales, 
to wham (nay be aided More, 
Cudworth, Gale* THlotson, and 
Whitrhrot. They were zeal- 



ously attached to the church of 
England ; but did not look up* 
on episcopacy as indispensable 
to the constitution of the chris- 
tian church : hence they main- 
tained, that those who followed 
other forms of government and 
worship, were not on that ac- 
count to be excluded from the 
communion, or to forfeit the ti- 
tle of brethren. They reduced 
the fundamental doctrines of 
Christianity to a few points. 
By this way of proceeding they 
showed that neither the episco- 
palians, who, generally speak- 
ing, were Arminians, nor the 
presby terians and independents, 
who as generally adopted the 
doctrines of Calvin, had any 
reason to oppose each other 
with such animosity and bitter- 
ness, since the subjects of their 
debates were matters of an in- 
different nature, with respect to 
salvation ; and might be vari- 
ously explained and understood 
without any prejudice to their 
eternal interests.t 

LIBERTINES, asect which 
arose in Flanders about 1525. 
probably from the remains of 
the « Brethren of the free spir- 
it " mentioned above. They 
published no books ; but the 
doctrines they taught, accord- 
ing to Calvin and others, were 
the following: 1. That the Dei- 
ty was the soul operating cause 
in tV mind of man, and the 
immediate author of all human 
actions. 2. That consequently 



* Mofheim, vol. v. p 

I Ifotheupi vol. iv. p. 535. 



f Tlror.^hton, vol. ii. p. 31. 
Burnet's History oi'liis own times, p. 186. 



LOL 



151 



LOL 



the distinctions of good and evil 
that had been established with 
respect to those actions, were 
false and groundless ; and that 
men could not, properly speak- 
ing, commit sin. 3. That reli- 
gion consisted in the union of 
the spirit, or rational soul, with 
the supreme Being. 4. That 
all those who had attained to 
this happy union by sublime 
contemplation and elevation of 
mind, were then allowed to in- 
dulge, without exception or re- 
straint, their appetites and pas- 
sions, as all their actions were 
then perfectly innocent. 5. That 
after the death of the body, 
they were to be united to the 
Deity.* 

LOLLARDS, the followers 
of Walter Lollard, (or Walter, 
the Lollard,) who is said to have 
been an Englishman by birth j 
but he first propagated his doc- 
trines in Germany, about the 
year 1315, after which he re- 
turned to England, a few years 
before Wickliff began to op- 
pose the church of Rome. (See 
Wickliffites.) The Lollards re- 
jected the sacrifice of the mass, 
extreme unction, and penances 
for sin ; insisting that Christ's 
sufferings were all-sufficient to 
atone for the sins of those who 
believed in him. Walter Lol- 
lard afterwards returned to the 
continent, wiiere he sealed his 
testimony with his blood, being 
burnt alive at Cologne in 1322. 

Many societies of Lollards, 
of both sexes, w r ere formed in 



most parts of Germany and 
Flanders, where they were pro- 
tected by the magistrates and 
inhabitants, on account of their 
usefulness to the sick ; but 
whether they were really the 
disciples of Walter Lollard, 
may be questioned j the Alexi- 
ansor Cellites, had obtained the 
name of Lollards, from the old 
German word lallen, lollen, or 
lallen, " to sing with a low 
voice; 55 to hill; because they 
interred such as died of the 
plague, which at that period 
ravaged all Europe, and sung 
a dirge in a mournful tone, as 
they conveyed them to the 
grave. They obtained many 
papal grants, by which their in- 
stitute w 7 as confirmed, their 
persons exempted from the cog- 
nizance of the inquisitors, and 
subjected entirely to the juris- 
diction of the bishops : and at 
last, for their farther security, 
Charles, Duke of Burgundy, in 
1472, obtained a bull from Pope 
Sixtus IV. by which they were 
ranked among the religious or- 
ders, and delivered from the 
jurisdiction of their bishops; 
which privileges were yet more 
extended by Pope Julius II. in 
1506. 

In England, the followers of 
Wickliff were called, by way of 
reproach, Lollards, from some 
affinity in their tenets, which 
were solemnly condemned by 
the archbishop of Canterbury 
and the council of Oxford ; and 
those who adhered to them 



Broughton, vol. ii. p, 543. Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 122, 123. 



LLT 



152 



LUT 



were lor many years subject- 
ed to a cruel persecution.* 

LUCIANISTS, so called 
from Lucianus, or Lucius, a 
disciple of Marcion ; w ho reject- 
ed marriage, and denied both 
the immortality of the soul and 
the resurrection.f See Marci- 
onites* 

LUCIFERIANS, a denomi- 
nation in the fourth century ; 
so called from Lucifer, bishop 
of Cagliari ; a zealous trinita- 
rian, who was on that account 
banished by Constantius, and 
afterwards refused to commune 
with the catholic church, on 
account of their receiring back 
on their repentance, those who 
had gone over to the Arians. 
They are said to have main- 
tained that the soul was trans- 
fused from the parents to the 
children.:): 

LUTHERANS, those who 
follow the opinions of Martin 
Luther, an Augustine Mar, 
who was born at Isleben, in 
Upper Saxony, in the year 
1483. He possessed an invin- 
cible magnanimity, and an un- 
common vigour and acutencss 
of mind. He first took of- 
fence ill the indulgences which 
were granted in 1517, by Pope 
Leo X. to those who contribu- 
ted towards finishing St. Ve- 
in's church at Rome ; Luther 
being tlien professor of <li\ inity 
at Wittemburg. Those indul- 



gences promised remission of 
all sins, past, present, and to 
come, however enormous their 
nature, to all who were rich e- 
nough to purchase them. At 
this Luther raised his warning 
voice ; and in ninety five prop- 
ositions, maintained publicly at 
Wittemberg, Sept. 30, 1517, 
exposed the doctrine of indul- 
gences, which led him to attack 
the authority of the pope. This 
was the commencement of that 
memorable revolution in the 
church, which is styled the re- 
formation. 

The capital articles which 
Luther maintained are as fol- 
low ; to which are added a few 
of the texts and arguments 
which he employed in their de- 
fence. 

I. That the holy scriptures 
are the only source whence wc 
are to draw our religious senti- 
ments, whether they relate to 
faith or practice. John v. 39. 
2. Tim. iii. 15 — 17. Reason 
also confirms the sufficiency of 
the scriptures : for if the writ- 
ten word be allowed to be a 
rule in one case, how can it be 
denied to be a rule in another ? 

II. That justification is the 
effect of faith, exclusive of good 
works ; and that faith ought to 
produce good works purely in 
obedience to God, and not in 
order to our justification :§ for 
St. Paul, in his epistle to the 

* MoshciiM, vol. UL p. 355, . >7, and 378, New Kd. 

f Lindner's Her. i Mosheiin, vol i. p. f 

ither constantly opposed this doctrine to the Romish tenet, that man by 
:i of Ids own — prayer, fasting, and corporeal afflictions — might merit and 

i pardon ; and he used to call the doctrine of justification />■' frith al^ve 
[cuius itanlia 



LUT 



153 



LUT 



Galatians, strenuously opposed 
those, who ascribed our justifi- 
cation (though but in part) to 
works ; If righteousness come 
by the law, then Christ is dead 
in vain. Gal. ii. 21. There- 
fore it is evident we are not jus- 
tified by the law, or by our 
works ; but to him who believ- 
eth, sin is pardoned and Christ's 
righteousness imputed. 

III. That no man is able to 
make satisfaction for his sins : 
for our Lord teaches us to say, 
when w r e have done all things 
that are commanded, We are 
unprofitable servants. Luke xvii. 
10. Christ's sacrifice is alone 
sufficient to satisfy for sin, and 
nothing need be added to the 
infinite value of his atonement. 

Luther also rejected tradi- 
tion, purgatory, penance, auric- 
ular confession, masses, invo- 
cation of saints, monastic vows, 
and other doctrines of the 
church of Rome. 

On the points of predestina- 
tion^riginal sin, and free-will, 
Luther coincided with Calvin, 
but on matters of church disci- 
pline they widely differed ; like- 
wise on the presence of Christ's 
body in the sacrament. His 
followers also deviated from 
him in some things; but the 
following may be considered as 
a fair statement of their prin- 
ciples, and the difference be- 



tween them and the Calvinists : 
(1.) The Lutherans have bish- 
ops and superintendants for the 
government of the church. But 
the ecclesiastical government 
which Calvin introduced was 
called presbyterian ; and does 
not admit of the institution of 
bishops, or of any subordination 
among the clergy. (2.) They 
differ in their notions of the sa- 
crament of the Lord's supper. 
The Lutherans reject transub- 
stantiation; but affirm, that 
the body and blood of Christ 
are materially present in the 
sacrament, though in an incom- 
prehensible manner ; this they 
called emisubtantiation. The 
Calvinists hold, on the contra- 
ry, that Jesus Christ is only 
spiritually present in the ordi- 
nance, by the external signs of 
bread and wine. (3.) They dif- 
fer in their doctrine of the eter- 
nal decrees of God respecting 
man's salvation.^ The modern 
Lutherans maintain that the 
divine decrees, repecting the 
salvation and misery of men,, 
are founded upon the divine 
prescience. The Calvinists, on 
the contrary, consider these de- 
crees as absolute and uncon- 
ditional. 

The Lutherans are general- 
ly divided into the moderate 
and the rigid. The moderate 
Lutherans are those who sub* 



* Though Luther, and many of his German co-adjutors limited the atone- 
ment to those who are saved ; a great majority of his followers maintained, that 
Christ actually made a full, a perfect atonement for every individual of the 
human race. See Wilson on A-tonement, p. %2, 

-20 



LUT 



154 



LUT 



mitted to the interim, published 
by the emperour Charles V.* 
Melanchthon was the head of 
this party, and they were call- 
ed Jldiaphorists* The rigid Lu- 
therans are those who would 
not endure any change in their 
master's sentiments ; of whom 
M. Flacius was the head. 

The Lutherans are partial to 
the use of instrumental music 
in their churches, and admit 
statues and paintings as the 
church of England does, with- 
out allowing them any religious 
veneration ; but the rigid Cal- 
vinists reject these, and al- 
low only the simplest forms of 
psalmody. 

The modern Lutherans, about 
the Close of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, enlarged their liberality 
toward other sects, and gave 
up the supposed right of perse- 
cution. Their public teachers 
now enjoy an unbounded right 
of dissenting from the decisions 
of those symbols of creeds, 
which were once deemed al- 
most infallible rules of faith 
and practice. Moshcim attri- 
butes this change in their sen- 
timents to the maxim which 
they generally adopted, that 
Christians were accountable to 
God alone for their religious 
opinions ; and that no individ- 
ual could be justly punished by 
the magistrate for his errome* 
ous opinions, while he conduct- 



ed himself like a virtuous and * 
obedient subject, and made no 
attempts to disturb the peace 
and order of civil society. 

The Lutherans at present ad- 
mit also into their sacred ca- 
non the Epistle of St. James, 
and the revelation of St. John, 
which Luther rejected, because 
he could not explain them.f 

The doctrine of consubstan- 
tiation, which is maintained by 
the Lutheran churches, consti- 
tutes the principal difference 
between them and the church 
of England. See English 
church. 

In Sweden and Norway the 
Lutheran church is episcopal. 
In Denmark under the name of 
superintendants, all episcopal 
authority is retained; whilst 
through Germany the superiour 
power is vested in a consistory, 
over which there is a presi- 
dent, with a distinction of rank 
and privileges, and a subordi- 
nation of the inferiour clergy 
to their superiours, different 
from the purity of presbyteri- 
anism. 

The German Lutheran church 
is a respectable body as to num- 
bers and wealth, in Pennsyl- 
vania and Maryland. Their 
maintainingthe doctrine of' con- 
sultant iation, and the episco- 
pal form of their ecclesiastical 
government, keeps them and 
the German reformed church 



• This was a confession of faith enjoined only in the interim, i. e. tillagen- 
cral council should decide the question in dispute 

f Moshcim, vol.iii. p. 331 ; \ ol iv. p 108, 109. Uobertson's Charles V. 
vol. ii. p. 42. Broughton, vol. ii p S3—36\ Middleton's Hioj^raphia Evan, 
vol, i. p. 158, ccc. and Luther on the GalatuUM, 4to. p. 142—144. 



MAG 



155 



MAG 



distinct bodies. There is, how- 
ever, a good understanding be- 
tween them, and they often of- 
ficiate in each other's pulpits, 
and in some instances unite in 
building a church, in whichthey 
both worship at different times. 
This harmony between two de- 
nominations, once so much op- 
posed to each other, is owing 
to the relaxation of the reform- 



ed church in some of the pecu- 
liar doctrines of Calvinism.* 

The Lutherans are also sub- 
divided into a variety of infe- 
riour denominations, as Jims- 
dorjians, Calixtins, Flacians, 
Osiandrians, Synergists, Ubiqui- 
tarians, and Zainglians, of 
which some account will be 
found under their respective 
heads. 



M 



MACEDONIANS, a de- 
nomination of the fourth centu- 
ry, so called after Macedonius, 
the semi-arian bishop of Con- 
stantinople. Socrates, the ec- 
clesiastical historian, says, He 
considered the Holy Ghost as 
the " divine energy diffused 
throughout the universe, and 
not as a person distinct from 
the Father and the Son ;" an 
opinion that had many parti- 
zans, before it was condemned 
in the council of Constantino- 
ple, in the year 381.f 

*MAGDALENETTES, a 
name given to certain commu- 
nities of nuns, consisting chief- 
ly of penitent courtezans. They 
were established at Mentz in 
1542— at Paris 1492— at Na- 
ples 1S24 — at Rouen and Bor- 
deaux 1618. The propriety of 
giving this name to such char- 
acters has been, however, de- 



nied by Mr. Hanway and others, 
since it is by no means certain 
that Mary Magdalen was a wo- 
man of bad character ; and her 
having been a demoniac by no 
means implies it4 See Feni- 
tents. 

MAGI, (jtiytt, Greek ;) in- 
terpreters of sacred mysteries. 
The Magi, or Magians, are an 
ancient Persian sect, who be- 
lieved in two co-eternal princi- 
ples, namely, Oromasdes, the 
source of all good, and Arima- 
nius, the fountain of all evil. The 
former they worshipped under 
the symbol of its purest emblem., 
a perpetual fire. Their priests 
attained to such extraordinary 
skill in philosophy, that some 
have imagined, they exercised 
curious and diabolical arts, and 
hence arose the term Magi- 
cians. Others supposed their 
magic was natural and lawful. 

* Evans' Sketch of Religious Denominations. Buck's Theol. Diet. Rush's 
Account of the German inhabitants of Pennsylvania. 

f Mosheim, vol. i. p 426 

i Scotch Theol. Diet, in Magdalen* Hanway's Letter to the governours of 
the Magdalen Hospital. 



MAH 



156* 



MAH 



Such were the ancient Magi of 
the Persians, their descendants 
in Persia are the Gaurs of the 
present dav.* See Gaurs. 

MAHOMETANS, or Mo- 
hammedans, derive their name 
and doctrine from Mahomet, or 
Mohammed, who was born in 
Arabia late in the sixth centu- 
ry. He was endowed with a 
subtle genius, and possessed of 
great enterprise and ambition. 
He aimed at the introduction of 
a new religion, and hegan his 
eventful project by accusing 
both Jews and christians with 
corrupting the revelations that 
had been made to them from 
heaven. He maintained that the 
prophets, and even Christ him- 
self, had foretold his coming, 
Which he endeavoured to make 
out from the Arabic version of 
Deut. xxxii. 2. Psalm 1. 2. 
Isa. xxi. 7, and John xvi. 7 ; in 
some of which he pretended 
that he was literally named, as 
likewise in other parts of the 
original gospels ; and particu- 
larly that he was the paraclete 
promised by our Saviour in the 
text last referred to. 

According to the best Mo- 
hammedan authors, his mission 
was revealed to him in a dream, 
in the fortieth year of his age. 
From that moment, say they, 
Mohammed, under the influence 
of a holy terrour, devoted him- 
self to a solitary life. He re- 
tire/1 to a grotto in the moun- 
tain of Hrra, which overlooks 
Mecca, He there passed his 



days and nights in fasting, 
prayer, and meditation. In the 
midst of one of these extacies, 
the angel Gabriel appeared to 
him with the first chapter of the 
koran, and commanded him to 
read. Mohammed replied, ho 
was unahle ; upon which the an- 
gel repeatedly embraced him, 
and commanded him to read in 
the name of his Creator. A few 
days afterwards, praying upon 
the same mountain of Hira, Mo- 
hammed saw the angel again 
seated in the midst of the clouds, 
on a glittering throne, with the 
second chapter of the koran; 
and was addressed by him in 
the following words : w Oh thou 
who art covered with a celes- 
tial mantle, arise and preach !" 

Thus Gabriel, say the same 
writers, communicated by com- 
mand of the Eternal to his pro- 
phet, in the twenty three last 
years of his life, chapter by 
chapter, the whole book of the 
koran. f 

These pretensions to a divine 
mission drew on him a requi- 
sition from the inhabitants of 
Mecca, that he would convince 
them by working a miracle ; 
but he replied, " God refuses 
those signs and wonders that 
would depreciate the merit of 
faith, and aggravate the guilt 
of infidelity." « He declared that 
God sent him into the world not 
only to teach his will, but to 
compel mankind to embrace it. 
The magistrates of Mecca were 
alarmed at the progress of his 



• Calmetfs Dictionary on the Bible, vol. ii. 

t Prideaux's Life of Mahomet. D'Ohosson's Ottoman Empire. 



MAH 



lif 



MAH 



doctrines; and Mohammed, be- 
ing apprized of their design to 
destroy him, fled to Medina. 
From this flight, which hap- 
pened in the year of Christ 622, 
his followers compute their era, 
called in Arabic, hegira, or the 

Jlight. 

The book in which the Mo- 
hommcdan religion is contain- 
ed is called alcoran, or tlte koran, 
i. e. the reading ; as we say the 
bible, which means the book, by 
w 7 ay of eminence. The Moham- 

. medans believe, that this book 
was taken from the great vol- 
ume of the divine decrees, which 
has been from everlasting by 
God's throne, written on a ta- 
ble of vast dimensions, called 
"the preserved table." Its 
doctrines made a most rapid 
progress over Arabia, Syria, 
Egypt, and Persia ; and Mo- 
hammed became the most pow- 
erful monarch of his time. 
His successors spread over 
great part of Asia, Africa, and 
Europe: and they still give 
law to a very considerable pro- 
portion of mankind. 

This rapid and extensive 
spread of the Moslem faith has 
not only been urged as an argu- 
ment in its favour, but been 
brought into competition with 
the propagation of Christiani- 
ty. Two circumstances how- 
ever must be brought into con- 
sideration. Mohammed contriv- 
ed by the permission of polig- 
amy and concubinage to make 
his creed palatable to the most 
depraved of mankind ; and at 
the same time, by allowing its 



propagation by the sword, to 
excite the martial spirit of un- 
principled adventurers. " The 
sword, (says he) is the key of 
heaven and hell i" " and who- 
soever falls in battle, his sins 
are forgiven at the day of judg- 
ment; and the loss of his limbs 
shall be supplied by the wings 
of angels and cherubims." 

The great doctrine of the ko- 
ran is the unity of God : to re- 
store which point, Mohammed 
pretended, was the chief end of 
his mission ; it being laid down 
by him as a fundamental truth, 
that there never was, nor can 
be, more than one true religion. 
For though particular laws or 
ceremonies are temporary, and 
subject to alteration according 
to divine direction j yet, the 
substance of religion being 
truth, continues immutable. 
And he taught, that whenever 
this religion became neglected, 
or essentially corrupted, God 
informed and admonished man- 
kind thereof by prophets, of 
whom Moses and Jesus were 
the most distinguished, till the 
appearance of Mohammed. 

The koran asserts Jesus to be 
the true Messiah, the word and 
breath of God, a worker of mi- 
racles, a preacher of heavenly 
doctrines, and an exemplary 
pattern of a perfept life. Many 
Mohammedans deny that he 
was really crucified; but pre- 
tend that, to elude the malice of 
his enemies,he was caught up in- 
to paradise, and another person 
crucified in his stead ; though 
this opinion is by no means uni- 



MAH 



158 



MAH 



versal. They believe that his 
religion was improved and com- 
pleted by Mohammed, who was 
the seal of the prophets, and 
was sent from God to restore 
the true religion to its primi- 
tive simplicity ; with the addi- 
tion however, of some peculiar 
laws and ceremonies. 

The Mohammedans- divide 
their religion into two general 
parts ; faith and practice. 
Their faith, or theory, is sum- 
med up in this confession ; 
There is but one God, and Mo- 
hammed is his prophet Under 
these two propositions are com- 
prehended six distinct branches: 
Belief in God ; in his angels ; 
in his scriptures ; in his pro- 
phets ; in the resurrection and 
judgment; in God's absolute 
decrees. 

The unity of God is the first 
principle of their faith. " There 
is no God but God, and him on- 
ly we must adore." Of angels 
it is believed, that they have 
pure and subtile bodies, created 
of fire, and that they have va- 
rious forms and offices ; some 
being employed in writing down 
the actions of men, others in 
carrying the throne of God, and 
ojher services. They reckon 
four angels suporiour to the 
rest: Gabriel, who is employed 
in writing the divine decrees — 
Michael* the protector <>!' the 
Jews — Azrael* the angel of 
death — and Isralil, who will 
sound the trumpet at the resur- 
rection. They likewise assign 
to each person two guardian 
angels. The devil, according 



to the koran, was once one of the 
highest angels ; but fell through 
refusing to pay homage to Ad- 
am at the command of God. 

Besides angels and devils, 
the Mohammedans are taught 
to believe an intermediate order 
of creatures, which they callow, 
or genii; created also of fire, 
but of a grosser fabric than an- 
gels, and subject to mortality. 
Some of these are supposed to 
be good, and others bad ; and 
capable of future salvation or 
damnation, as men are. 

As to the scriptures, they are 
taught by the koran, that God 
in divers ages of the w r orldgave 
revelations of his will in writing 
to his prophets, all of which are 
lost except the pentateuch, the 
psalms, the gospel, and the ko- 
ran, which were successively 
delivered to Moses, David, Je- 
sus, and Mohammed ; which 
last being the seal of the pro- 
phets, these revelations are now 
closed. The number of pro- 
phets, who have been from time 
to time sent into the world they 
compute at 224 thousand. 

Their next article of faith is 
the general resurrection and a 
future judgment. But before 
these, they believe there is an 
intermediate state, both of the 
soul avid body. When a corpse 
is laid in the grave, two angels 
they suppose, come to examine 
it concerning the unity of God 
and the mission of Mohammed. 
[f the body answer rightly, it is 
suffered to rest in peace : if not, 
they beat it with iron maces, 
then press the earth on the 



MAH 



159 



MAH 



corpse, which is knawed and 
stung by ninety niiie dragons, 
which some explain allegorical- 
ly, of the slings of conscience. 

As to the souls of the faithful, 
when they are separated from 
the body by the angel of death, 
they believe that those of the 
prophets are admitted into pa- 
radise immediately : that the 
souls of believers are lodged 
with Adam in the lowest heav- 
en ; but that those of the wick- 
ed are confined in a dungeon 
under a great rock, to be there 
tormented till the general res- 
urrection. In these points, 
however, they are by no means 
unanimous. 

That the resurrection will be 
general, and* extend to angels, 
genii, men, and animals, is the 
received opinion of the Moham- 
medans, and supported by the 
authority of the koran.* 

Mankind, say they, at the re- 
surrection will be distinguished 
into three classes; those who 
go on foot, those who ride, and 
those who creep. The first 
class will consist of those be- 
lievers, whose good works have 
been few ; the second of those 
who are more acceptable toGod ; 
whence Ali affirms that the pi- 
ous, when they come forth from 
their sepulchres, shall find ready 
prepared for them white-wing- 
ed camels, with saddles of gold. 
The third class will be compos- 
ed of infidels, whom God will 
cause to make their appearance 



with their faces on the ground. 
When all are assembled togeth- 
er, they will wait in their ranks 
and orders for the judgment a 
very considerable time. At 
length God will come in the 
clouds, surrounded by angels, 
and will produce the books 
wherein every man's actions are 
written. Some say, that he will 
judge all creatures in the space 
of half a day, and others less. 
At this tribunal, every action, 
thought, and word, will be 
weighed in balances held by the 
angel Gabriel, of so vast a size, 
that its two scales are capacious 
enough to contain both heaveu 
and earth. The trials being 
over, all must pass the bridge 
at Sirat, which is laid over the 
middle of hell, and is described 
to be finer than a hair, and 
sharper than the edge of a sa- 
bre. The wicked will miss 
their footing, and fall headlong 
into hell fire.f 

In the koran it is said that 
hell has seven gates, for the mus- 
sulmans, the christians,the jews, 
the sabians, the magicians, the 
pagans, and for hypocrites of all 
religions. Here they will suf- 
fer a variety of torments, which 
shall be eternal, except to those 
who have embraced the true 
religion, who will be delivered 
thence after they have expiat- 
ed their crimes by their suffer- 
ings.^: The righteous, after 
having surmounted the difficul- 
ties of their passage, will en- 



• Sale's Koran, p. 96, 97. t Ibid. p. 90—112. 

I D'Ohosson's Hist, of the Ottoman Empire, vol. i. p, 109. 



MAH 



160 



MAH 



tcr paradise, which they de- 
scribe to be a most glorious and 
delicious place, inhabited by 
beautiful women or houris, a- 
bounding with rivers of milk, 
wine, and honey, &c. Here 
the faithful will enjoy the most 
exquisite delights, in a state of 
eternal beatitude, where the 
degree of felicity is proportion- 
ed to the sincerity of their faith, 
and the nature and number of 
their good works. Some of 
their philosophers, however, 
understand these descriptions 
allegorically. 

The last great point of faith 
relates to God's absolute de- 
crees. The doctrine which they 
Qall orthodox is, that whatever 
comes to pass in the world, 
whether it be good or bad, pro- 
ceeds entirely from the divine 
will, and is irrevocably fixed, 
and recorded from all eternity 
in the preserved table ; and that 
God hath secretly predetermin- 
ed, not only the adverse and 
prosperous fortune of every per- 
son in the world ; but also his 
obedience or disobedience, and 
consequently his everlasting 
happiness or misery after death ; 
which fate or predestination, it 
is impossible by any foresight 
or wisdom to avoid. Notwith- 
standing this,some doctors of the 
Mohammedan law assert, that 
whoever denies free-will, and 
attributes human actions to the 
sole influence of the Deity, sins 
against religion ; and, if he per- 
sist in his errour, becomes an 
infidel. They assert, that in ev- 

* White's Bampton Lecture, p. 84. 



ery circumstance of life, the di- 
vine assistance ought first to be 
implored, through the interces- 
sion of the prophet : then every 
one should reflect, deliberate, 
and use that aid which pru- 
dence and experience may sug- 
gest. After these means have 
been employed, then, they say, 
that human events may be at- 
tributed to the decrees of 
heaven; to which mankind 
ought ever to submit with the 
most unlimited resignation. 

It is certain that Mohammed 
made great use of the doctrine 
of predestination, or rather fate, 
for the advancement of his de- 
signs ; encouraging his follow- 
ers to fight without fear, and 
even desperately, •for the pro- 
pagation of their faith, by rep- 
resenting to them that all their 
caution would not avert their 
inevitable destiny, or prolong 
their lives : for not only the time, 
but the manner and circumstan- 
ces of their death, have been 
unalterably fixed from all eter- 
nity. Hence the rigid mussul- 
man deems every attempt to 
change the common order of 
things, rebellion against the 
established laws of God ; and 
views the plague, which is com- 
mon in those parts, ravaging his 
country, and destroying thou- 
sands and ten thousands in the 
streets, without exerting one 
e(f(>rt to check its deadly ef- 
fects.* 

Of the four practical duties 
required by the koran, prayer 
is the first. Mahomet used to 



MAH 



161 



MAH 



call prayer, the pillar of religion, 
and the key of paradise. Hence 
he obliged his followers to pray, 
five times every twenty four 
hours, and always to wash be- 
fore prayers. 

The giving of alms is com- 
manded jointly with prayer; 
the former being held of great 
efficacy in causing the latter to 
prevail with God.* 

Fasting is another duty^en- 
joined as of the utmost import- 
ance. They are obliged to fast 
the whole month of Ramadan, 
from day-light to sun-set ; and 
the reason given is, because at 
that time the koran was sent 
down from heaven. 

The pilgrimage to Mecca is 
so necessary a point of practice, 
that, according to a tradition of 
Mohammed, he who dies with- 
out performing it, may as well 
die a jew or a christian : they 
also practise circumcision as a 
divine institution; and keep 
their sabbath on a Friday. 

The negative precepts of the 
koran are, to abstain from usu- 
ry, gambling, drinking of wine, 
eating of blood, and swine's 
flesh. 

The Mohammedans are no 
less divided in sentiment, than 
the Christians. The first di- 
vision is into the followers of 
Abubekir and Ali; each of 
whom claimed the succession af- 
ter Mohammed's death, as Ca- 
liph or vicar of the prophet ; just 
as the pope pretends to be the 
successor of St. Peter. The 
adherents to the former are 

* Sale's Koran, p. 114-160. 
21 



called Somnites ; because they 
adhered to the Somna or tradi- 
tions of tiie sayings of the 
prophet, in the same manner, as 
the Rabbins adhere to the J ew- 
ish Mishna. On the other hand 
the Schiites, who adhere to Ali, 
reject these traditions, as the 
Karaites do those of the Jew r s. 
Between these parties subsists 
the greatest animosity, each 
charging the other with cor- 
rupting their religion, and a- 
nathematizing each other as the 
vilest heretics. These are di- 
vided into a variety of inferiour 
sects, differing chiefly on the 
doctrines of fate and free-will ; 
on the nature and duration of 
future rewards and punish- 
ments, and on certain rites and 
ceremonies; but the christian 
reader would be little interest- 
ed by particulars. The fol- 
lowers of Ali are chiefly to be 
found in Persia ; and the sub- 
jects of the great mogul are, in 
a great measure, neuter. 

These principles are all pro- 
fessedly derived from the Ko- 
ran, or Mohammedan bible, re- 
peatedly referred to above. This 
book has been extolled as the 
standard of eloquence among 
the Arabians ; and many learn- 
ed christian writers have ad- 
mitted that it contains eloquent 
passages, but it has been as- 
serted, that « most of these are 
evidently borrowed from the 
writings of Moses and the 
prophets, and are written in a 
style similar to that of the He- 
brew scriptures," and that 



MAH 



162 



AIAN 



** the commentators on the ko- 
ran, not less numerous than 
those of Christianity, have been 
equally successful with the lat- 
ter, in darkening the text, they 
have attempted to explain." 

This account, which w r ould 
already he too long, were it not 
respecting the i'aith of an hun- 
dred and forty millions of the 
present race of mankind, shall 
be concluded with a brief sum- 
mary of mussulman theology, 
in the form of a creed, said to 
be extracted from a catechism 
lately published at Constanti- 
nople. " I believe in the books 
which have been delivered from 
heaven to the prophets. In this 
manner w as the koran given to 
Mohammed, the pentateuch to 
Moses, the psalter to David, 
and the gospel to Jesus. I be- 
lieve in the prophets, and the 
miracles which they performed. 
Adam was the first prophet, and 
Mohammed the last. I believe 
that for the space of fifty thou- 
sand years, the righteous shall 
repose under the shade of the 
terrestrial paradise, and the 
wicked shall be exposed naked 
to the burning rays of the sun. 
I believe in the bridge Siret, 
which passes over the bottom- 
less pit of hell ; it is as fine as 
a hair, and as sharp as a sabre. 
All must pass over it, and the 
wicked shall be thrown olf. 
I believe in the water-pools of 
paradise. Each of the proph- 
ets lias in paradise a bason for 
his own use; the water is whi- 

• Sale's Koran. Pridcaux's Lite of Mohammed. Adam's Religious World 
displayed, vol.. i. p. 217. 



ter than milk, and sweeter than, 
honey. On the ridges of the 
pools are vessels to drink out 
of it, and they are bordered 
with stars. I believe in heaven 
and hell. The inhabitants of 
the former know no want, and 
the houri&who attend them are 
never afflicted with sickness. 
The floor of paradise is musk, 
the stones are silver, and the 
ceqjpnt gold. The damned, on 
the contrary, are tormented by 
fire, and by voracious and poi- 
sonous animals."* 

MANICHEANS, or Mar- 
chess, a denomination founded 
in the third century, by one 
Manes, or Mauicheus. Being a 
Persian by birth, and educated 
among the magi, he attempted 
a coalition of their doctrine 
with the christian system ; or 
rather, the explication of the 
one by the other ; and in order 
to succeed in the enterprize, 
affirmed, that Christ had left 
the doctrine of salvation imper- 
fect and unfinished : and that 
he was the Paraclete, or Com- 
forter, whom the departing Sa- 
viour had promised to his dis- 
ciples, to lead them into all 
truth. He rejected the old 
testament, the four gospels, and 
the acts of the apostles ; said 
that the epistles of Paul were 
falsified in a variety of places, 
and wrote a gospel which he 
pretended was dictated to him 
by God himself, and distin- 
guished it by the name of Er- 



MAN 



16.3 



MAN 



Manes taught, that there 
are two principles from which 
all things proceed ; the one, a 
most pure and subtle matter, 
called light; and the other, a 
gross and corrupt substance, 
called darkness. Each of these 
is subject to the dominion of an 
eternal, superintending Being. 
He, who presides over the light, 
is called God ; he, who rules the 
darkness, bears the title of Hyle, 
or a Demon. The ruler of the 
light is supremely benevolent, 
good, and happy. The prince 
of darkness is in himself unhap- 
py j and being desirous to render 
others partakers of his misery, 
evil and malignant. These two 
beings have each produced an 
immense multitude of creatures 
resembling themselves, and dis- 
tributed them through their re- 
spective provinces. 

The prince of darkness long 
knew not that light existed in 
the universe; and no sooner 
did he perceive it, by means of 
a war kindled in his dominions, 
than he endeavoured to subject 
it to his empire. The ruler of 
the light opposed his efforts, 
at first with no great success : 
for the prince of darkness seized 
upon a considerable portion of 
the celestial elements, even of 
the light itself, and mingled 
them in the mass of corrupt 
matter. The ruler of the light 
then employed the living spirit, 
who succeeded better ; but he 
could not entirely disengage the 
pure particles of the celestial 
matter from the corrupt mass, 
through which they had been 



dispersed. The prince of dark- 
ness after his defeat produced 
the first parents of the human 
race. These consist of a body 
formed out of the corrupt mat- 
ter of the kingdom of darkness ; 
and of two souls, one of which 
is sensitive and lustful, and is 
attributed to the evil principle ; 
the other is rational and immor- 
tal ; a particle of that divine light 
which was carried away by the 
army of darkness, and immers- 
ed into the mass of malignant 
matter. 

Mankind being thus formed, 
God created the earth out of 
the mass of matter by that liv- 
ing spirit, who had vanquished 
the prince of darkness ; in order 
to furnish a dwelling for the 
human race ; to deliver by de- 
grees the captive souls from 
their corporeal prisons ; and to 
extract the celestial elements 
from the gross substance, in 
which they were involved. In 
order to this design, God pro- 
duced two beings of eminent 
dignity from his own essence — 
Christ, and the Holy Ghost. 
The former is supposed to be 
that glorious intelligence which 
the Persians called Mythras; 
the brightness of the eternal 
light, subsisting in and by him- 
self, endowed with life, enriched 
with infinite wisdom, and hav- 
ing his. residence in the sun. 
The latter, also a luminous, 
animated substance, diffused 
throughout the atmosphere, 
which surrounds this terrestrial 
globe. This genial principle 
warms and illuminates the 



MAN 



164 



MAN 



minds of men, also renders the 
earth fruitful, and draws forth 
gradually from its hosom the 
latent particles of celestial fire, 
which it wafts up on high to 
their primitive station. 

After the supreme Being had 
for a long time admonished the 
captive souls, by the ministry 
of the angels and holy prophets, 
he directed Christ to descend 
upon earth, in order to hasten 
the return of those imprisoned 
spirits to their celestial country. 
In obedience to this command 
Christ appeared among the 
Jews, clothed with the shadowy 
form of a human body, and not 
with the real substance. He 
taught mortals how to disen- 
gage the rational soul from the 
corrupt body, to conquer the 
violence of malignant matter; 
and demonstrated his divine 
mission by stupendous miracles. 
On the other hand, the prince 
of darkness used every method 
to inflame the Jews against this 
divine messenger, and incited 
them at length to put him to 
death upon an ignominious 
cross ; which punishment how- 
ever, he suffered not in reality, 
but only in appearance, and in 
the opinion of men. When 
Christ had fulfilled the purposes 
of his mission, he returned to 
his throne in the sun, and ap- 
pointed a certain number of 
chosen apostles to propagate 
his doctrines through the world. 
But before his departure, he 
promised that at a certain pe- 
riod he would send a messen- 
ger, superiour to all others in 



eminence and dignity, whom he 
called the Paraclete, or Com- 
forter, who should add many 
things to the precepts he had 
delivered, and dispel the errours 
under which his servants la- 
boured. This comforter is 
Manes, who, by order of the 
Most High, declared to mor- 
tals the whole doctrine of salva- 
tion, without concealing any of 
its truths under the veil of met- 
aphor. 

Those souls, who believe Je- 
sus to be the Son of God, re- 
nounce the worship of the God 
of the Jews, who is the prince 
of darkness, obey the laws de- 
livered by Christ, as they are 
enlarged and illustrated by 
Manes, and combat with per- 
severing fortitude the lusts and 
appetites of a corrupt nature, 
derive from this faith and obe- 
dience the inestimable advan- 
tage of being gradually puri- 
fied from the contagion of mat- 
ter. The total purification of 
souls cannot indeed be accom- 
plished during this life. Hence 
it is that the souls of men after 
death mast pass through two 
states more of probation and 
trial, by water and fire, before 
they can ascend to the regions 
of light. They ascend, there- 
fore, first into the moon, which 
consists of benign and salutary 
water ; whence, after a lustra- 
tion of fifteen days, they proceed 
to the sun, whose purifying fire 
removes entirely their corrup- 
tion. The bodies, composed 
of matter, which they have left 
behind them, return to their 



MAN 



165 



MAN 



first state, and enter into their 
original mass. On the other 
hand, those souls, who have 
neglected the salutary work of 
their purification, pass after 
death into the hodies of animals 
of different kinds, where they 
remain till they have expiated 
their guilt, and accomplished 
their salvation. When the 
greatest part of the captive 
souls are restored to liberty and 
to the regions of light, then a 
devouring fire shall break forth 
at the divine command, from 
the caverns in which it is at 
present confined, and shall de- 
stroy the frame of the world. 
After this tremendous event, the 
prince and powers of darkness 
shall be forced to return to their 
primitive abode of anguish and 
misery, in which they shall 
dw r ell forever : for, to prevent 
their renewing this war in the 
regions of light, God shall sur- 
round the mansions of darkness 
with an invincible guard, com- 
posed of those souls who have 
not finished their purifications. 
These set in array, like a mili- 
tary band, shall fully prevent 
any of their wretched inhabi- 
tants from coming forth again 
to the light. 

To support their fundamen- 
tal doctrine of two principles, 
the Manicheans argue thus : 
If we depend only on one al- 
mighty Cause, infinitely good, 
we cannot account for the ex- 
istence of natural and moral 
evil : for it is impossible, that 
the first man could derive the 
faculty of doing ill from a good 



principle, for evil cannot pro- 
ceed but from a bad cause ; 
therefore the free-will of Adam 
was derived from two opposite 
principles. He depended on 
the good principle for his power 
to persevere in innocence ; but 
his power to deviate from virtue 
owed its rise to an evil princi- 
ple. Hence it is argued, there 
are two contrary principles ; 
the one, the source of good ; the 
other, the fountain of all vice 
and misery. 

Manes enjoined his followers 
to mortify and afflict the body, 
which he looked upon as essen- 
tially corrupt; and to divest 
themselves of all the passions 
and instincts of nature : but he 
did not impose this severe man- 
ner of living without distinc- 
tion. He divided his disciples 
into two classes ; one of which 
comprehended perfect chris- 
tians, under the name of the 
elect; the other the imperfect 
and feeble, under the title of 
hearers. The elect were obliged 
to an entire abstinence from 
flesh, eggs, milk, fish, wine, all 
intoxicating drink, and wed- 
lock ; and to live in a state of 
the sharpest penury, nourishing 
their emaciated bodies with 
only bread, herbs, pulse, and 
melons. The discipline of the 
hearers was milder : they were 
allowed to possess houses, lands, 
and wealth ; to feed upon flesh, 
and to enter into the bonds of 
conjugal life; but under con- 
ditions of moderation and tem- 
perance. 

The general assembly of the 



MAN 



166 



MAR 



Manicheans was headed by a 
president, who was considered 
as the representative of Jesus 
Christ To him were joined 
twelve rulers, who were design- 
ed to represent the twelve apos- 
tles ; and these were followed by 
seventy two bishops — the suc- 
cessors of the seventy two dis- 
ciples. These bishops had pres- 
byters and deacons under them ; 
and all members of these or- 
ders were chosen out of the 
class of the elect. 

The Manicheans observed 
the Lord's day, but fasted up- 
on it. They likewise celebrated 
Easter, and had a regular 
church discipline and censors. 
They read the scriptures ; they 
baptized in the name of the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
and partook of the Lord's sup- 
per. 

The doctrine of Manes dif- 
fers from that of the Gnostics in 
this respect: instead of suppos- 
ing evil to have originated ulti- 
mately from inferiour and sub- 
ordinate beings, he held the 
doctrine of two original inde- 
pendent principles ; the one im- 
material, and supremely good ; 
the other material, and the 
source of all evil; but actuated 
by a soul, or something of the 
nature of intelligence. This 
sect concealed themselves un- 
der various names during the 
fourth century ; in the sixth, 
they revived and spread much 



in Persia : in the twelfth, they 
were again revived under one 
Constantine, an Armenian, with 
many refinements and improve- 
ments, and subsisted down to 
the fifteenth century.* 

MARCELLIANS, a denom- 
ination in the fourth century ; 
so called from Marcellus, bish- 
op of Ancyra ; he taught, that 
the Son and Holy Spirit are 
emanations from the Father ; 
which, after the economy of re- 
demption was finished, should 
return, and be absorbed again 
into the divine essence.f 

MARCIONITES, a sect in 
the second century ; so called 
from Marcion, successor of 
Cerdo, who made several addi- 
tions to his doctrines. He 
taught men to believe in a God 
superiour to the creator; name- 
ly, the supreme God, the Fa- 
ther, invisible, inaccessible, and 
perfectly good. The creator, 
who was the God of the Jews, 
made this lower and visible 
world. The supreme God had 
also a world of his making ; 
but perfect, immaterial, and in- 
visible. For he supposed if a 
good God had made this world, 
there would have been neither 
sin nor misery ; but all men 
would have been holy and hap- 
py. He taught tiiat Jesus was 
the Son of the good God, who 
took the cxteriour form of a 
man; and, without being born, 
he showed himself at once in 



• Moslieim, vol i. p. 239—245. Bayle'fl Hist. Diet. vol. iv. p. 2,487—2,489.. 
Prit -t ley's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 518. Jortin's Remarks, vol. ii. p. 263. 
f Moehcim, vol. i. p. 424, New Ed 



MAR 



167 



MAR 



Galilee as a man grown, and 
assumed the character of a sa- 
viour. 

According to this doctrine, 
Christ had the appearance of a 
human body, but not the reali- 
ty. They founded this opinion 
on angels appearing, under the 
old testament, in bodily forms, 
and on Phil. ii. 6 — 8 ; being in 
tlie form of God, he emptied 
himself, and took the form of a 
servant — the appearance, not 
the reality. Marcion acknowl- 
edged, that the prophets had 
promised a saviour to the Jews, 
but pretended that this deliver- 
er was not the Son of God. 
Hence he believed that there 
are two Christs ; one, who ap- 
peared in the time of Tiberius, 
for the salvation of all nations ; 
another, the restorer of the Jew- 
ish staie, who is yet to come. 
He supposed, that the souls 
of the virtuous would enjoy e- 
ternal happiness ; but he de- 
nied the resurrection of the 
body. 

Marcion altogether rejected 
the old testament, and received 
but eleven books of the new ; 
and of the gospels only Luke, 
and that with many alterations : 
he also rejected all the parts of 
the new testament which con- 
tain quotations from the old. 
The manners of this people 
were inoffensive and in some 
respects austere. They cen- 
sured marriage, and praised 
virginity. They believed in a 



kind of necessity, and their zeal 
is charged with intemperance, 
in rashly offering themselves to 
martyrdom.* 

MARCOSIANS, a branch 
of Gnostics in the second cen- 
tury ; whose leaders were Marc 
and Colobarsus. The former 
is charged, with being a magi- 
cian and an astrologer. He 
seems to have been fond of 
mysteries. He spoke highly of 
Jesus Christ, but symbolized in 
many points with the Gnostics 
and Valentinians.\ 

MARONITES, certain east- 
ern christians who inhabit Ma- 
ronia, near Mount Libanus, in 
Syria. This denomination re- 
tained the opinions of the Mo- 
nothelites till the twelfth cen- 
tury, when they were re-ad- 
mitted, in the year 1182, to the 
communion of the church of 
Rome. As to their peculiar 
tenets before their reconcilia- 
tion, they observed the Satur- 
day as well as the Sunday -sab- 
bath. They held that all souls 
were created together, at the 
beginning ; and that those of 
good men do not enter into 
heaven, till after the resurrec- 
tion. They added other opin- 
ions, which were similar to 
those of the Greek church.:): 

M ARTIN1STS, a sect which 
sprang up at Moscow, about 
the end of the reign of Cathe- 
rine II. They received their 
name from one Martin, a 
Frenchman, who appears to 



* Lardner's Works, vol. ix. p. S69— 393. 

j Mosheim, vol. i. p. 188. Lardner's Heretics, p. 172— 184, 

\ Broivg-hton, vol. ii, p. 61, Moshein}, vol. ii, p, 



MAR 



168 



MAS 



have entertained opinions sim- 
ilar to those of the famous Ja- 
cob Behmen, and introduced the 
doctrines of the mystics into 
the cold regions of the North, 
They are constantly in search 
of mysteries, and new discove- 
ries in revelation and nature. 
In their writings, they make 
use of a number of mystical 
signs or hieroglyphics, partic- 
ularly the picture of an heart, 
which they fill with symboli- 
cal figures, expressive of the 
spiritual state of the supposed 
possessor. They have num- 
bers of such pictures filled with 
hieroglyphics expressive of the 
passions, talents, virtues and 
vices of men, from the most a- 
bandoned to the most righteous. 

They pretend to visions and 
discoveries both in physics and 
metaphysics ; by which, they 
say, they arrive at the most ex- 
alted spiritual knowledge. This 
denomination are not numerous 
at the present day ; but these 
mystical religionists are, in 
general, men who have the 
character of being learned, and 
Whose chief object seems to be, 
to support this character by 
pretensions to great acquire- 
ments in hidden sciences ; to 
which, they say, others can 
m ■\tT attain, till they arrive at 
saine degree of spiritual 
and physical knowledge with 
themseh i 

The Martinists profess a 
warm regard for the word of 
God, which according to them 



contains not only the way of 
deliverance to fallen man, but 
also the whole secrets of na- 
ture. Their mode of interpre- 
ting scripture is, to represent 
the most simple texts as full of 
some mystical meaning, which 
they call the spiritual sense.* 
See New Jerusalem Church. 

*M ART YRS, those witness- 
es for the truth, who have 
sealed their testimony with 
their lives, in distinction from 
the confessors} who, though they 
suffered in the cause of reli- 
gion, were not called to « re- 
sist unto blood/'f 

MASSALIANS, or Euchites, 
certain monks in the fourth 
century, who derived their 
name from a Hebrew word sig- 
nifying prayer, it being their 
distinguishing tenet, that a man 
is literally to pray without ceas- 
ing. Hereupon they shunned 
society— avoided social religion,, 
and public ordinances, and re- 
tired into the woods, that they 
might wait solely and continu- 
ally on prayer. They imagin- 
ed that two souls resided in 
man ; the one good, the other 
evil : and taught that it was 
impossible to expel the evil de* 
inon. otherwise than by constant 
prayer and singing of hymns ; 
and that when this malignant 
spirit was cast out, the pure 
mind returned to God, and was 
again united to the divine es- 
sence, whence it had been sep- 
arated. They boasted of ex- 
1iv ordinary revelations, and a* 



P 73, 2:4. li Theol. D3 



MAT 



169 



MAT 



dopted many opinions of the 
Manichean system. They were 
a kind of Mystics.* 

MATERIALISTS, or Phy- 
sical Necessarians, certain 
philosophers in the christian 
church, who admitting the 
maxim, Ex nihilo nihil jit (from 
nothing can arise nothing) had 
recourse to a supposed internal 
matter, as a kind of substratum 
for the creation of material be- 
ings. In modern language, Ma- 
terialists are those who, denying 
the existence of spirit, conceive 
the soul of man to be material; 
or that thought is the result of 
corporeal organization. Of this 
class was the late Dr. Joseph 
Priestley, who considers man as 
consisting only of matter, dis- 
posed in a certain manner. At 
death the parts of this material 
substance are so disarranged, 
that the powers of perception 
and thought, which depend up- 
on this arrangement, cease. At 
the resurrection they will be re- 
arranged in the same, or in a 
similar manner, as before ; and, 
consequently, the powers of per- 
ception and thought will be re- 
stored. Death with its concom- 
itant putrefaction and disper- 
sion of parts, is only a decom- 
position. What is decomposed 
may be recomposed by the be- 
ing, who first composed it : so 
that, in the most proper sense 
of the word, the same body 
which dies shall rise again, not 
with every thing adventitious 
and extraneous, as what we re- 
ceive by nutrition ; but with the 



same stamina, or those particles 
which really belonged to the 
germ of the organical body. 
But the following particulars 
contain a farther developenient 
of Dr. Priestley *s system : 

I. That man is no more than 
what we now see of him. The 
corporeal and mental faculties, 
inhering in the same substance, 
grow, ripen, and decay togeth- 
er; and Whenever the system is 
dissolved, it continues in a state 
of dissolution, till it shall please 
that almighty Being, who called 
it into existence, to restore it to 
life again. For if the mental 
principle were, in its own na- 
ture, immaterial and immortal, 
all its peculiar faculties would 
be so too ; whereas we see that 
every faculty of the mind is 
liable to be impaired, and even 
to become extinct, before death. 
Since, therefore, all the faculties 
of the mind, , separately taken, 
appear to be mortal, the sub- 
stance, or principle in which 
they exist, says Dr. Priestley, 
must be pronounced mortal too. 

This system (it is added) 
gives a real value to the doc- 
trine of the resurrection, which 
is peculiar to revelation ; on 
this alone the sacred writers 
build our hope of future life : 
and represent all the rewards 
of virtue, and all the punish- 
ments of vice, as taking place 
at that awful day, and not be* 
fore. See 1 Cor. xv. 16 — 32. 
Farther, the scriptures, which 
speak of the state of man at 
death, expressly exclude any 



* Mosheim, vol. I p. 350, 351. Forraey's Eccte*. Hist, vol. i. p. 82- 
22 



MAT 



176 



MAT 



trace of sense, thought, or en- 
joyment. See Psalm vi. 5. Job 
xiv. 10, &c. 

II. That there is some fixed 
law of nature respecting the 
will, as well as the other powers 
of the mind, and every thing 
else in the constitution of na- 
ture ; and, consequently, that it 
is never determined without 
some real or apparent cause 
foreign to itself; i. e. without 
some motive of choice : or, that 
motives influence us in some 
definite and invariable manner ; 
so that every volition, or choice, 
is constantly regulated and de- 
termined by what precedes it : 
and this constant determina- 
tion of mind according to the 
motives presented to it, is what 
is meant by its necessary deter- 
mination. The term necessary 
being not here opposed to vol- 
untary, but to contingent. 
This fact being admitted, there 
will be a necessary connexion 
between all things past, pres- 
ent, and to come, in the way 
of proper cause and effect, as 
much in the intellectual as in 
the natural world : so that, ac- 
cording to the established laws 
of nature, no event could have 
been otherwise than it has been, 
is 9 or is to be. Thus the will, 
in all determinations, is govern- 
ed by the state of mind — this 
state of mind is in every instance 
determined by the Deity : and 
there is a continued chain of 
causes and effects, of motives 
and actions', Inseparably con- 
nected, and originating from 
the condition, in which we are 



brought into existence by the 
Author of our being. 

It is universally acknowl- 
edged, that there can be no 
effect without an adequate 
cause. This is even the foun- 
dation, on which the only pro- 
per argument for the being of 
a God rests. And the Neces- 
sarian asserts, that if, in any 
given state of mind, with res- 
pect both to dispositions and 
motives, two different determin- 
ations, or volitions, be possi- 
ble, it can be on no other prin- 
ciple, than that one of them 
should come under the descrip- 
tion of an effect without a 
cause j just as if the beam of a 
balance might incline either 
way, though loaded with equal 
weights. And if any thing 
whatever, even a thought in the 
mind of man, could arise with- 
out an adequate cause, any 
thing else, the mind itself, or 
the whole universe, might like- 
wise exist without an adequate 
cause. 

The scheme of philosophical 
necessity, therefore, implies a 
chain of causes and effects es- 
tablished by infinite wisdom, 
and terminating in the greatest 
good of the whole universe ; 
evils of all kinds, natural and 
moral, being admitted, as far 
as they contribute to that end, 
or are in the nature of things 
inseparable from it. Vice is 
productive not of good, but of 
evil to ?/.s, both here and here- 
after, though good may result, 
from it to the whole system : 
and, according to the fixed 



MAT 



171 



MAT 



laws of nature, our present 
and future happiness necessa- 
rily depend, on our cultivating 
good dispositions. By our be- 
ing liable to punishment for 
our actions, is meant, on this 
hypothesis, that it is wise and 
good in the supreme Being, to 
appoint that certain sufferings 
should follow certain actions, 
provided they be voluntary, 
though necessary ones : a 
course of voluntary actions and 
sufferings being calculated to 
promote the^ greatest ultimate 
good. 

Dr. Priestley distinguishes 
this scheme of philosophical 
necessity from the Calvinistic 
doctrine of predestination, in 
the following particulars : — 

I. No Necessarian supposes, 
that any of the human race will 
suffer eternally; but that fu- 
ture punishments will answer 
the same purpose as temporal 
ones are found to do; all of 
which tend to good, and are 
evidently admitted for that pur- 
pose. 

II. The Necessarian believes, 
that his own dispositions and 
actions are the necessary and 
sole means of his present and 
future happiness; so that, in the 
most proper sense of the words, 
it depends entirely on himself 9 
whether he be virtuous or vic- 
ious, happy or miserable. 

III. The Calvinistic system 
entirely excludes the popular 
notion of free-will ; viz. th» lib- 
erty or power of doing what we 
please, virtuous or vicious, as 
belonging to every person, in 



every situation ; which is peiv 
fectly consistent with the doc- 
trine of pliilosophical necessi- 
ty, and indeed results from it. 

IV. The Necessarian rejects 
original sin, the deity and atone- 
ment of Christ, divine influ- 
ences, and other points of Cal- 
vinism. He believes nothing 
of the actions of any man be- 
ing necessarily sinful : but, on 
the contrary, thinks that the 
very worst of men are capable 
of benevolent intentions in ma- 
ny things they do ; and like- 
wise that very good men are 
capable of falling from virtue, 
and consequently of sinking in- 
to final perdition. Upon these 
principles also, all late repent- 
ance, and especially after long 
and confirmed habits of vice, is 
altogether and necessarily im- 
practicable and ineffectual. 

In short, the three doctrines 
of Materialism, Philosophical 
Necessity, and Socinianism, are 
considered as essential parts 
of one system. The scheme of 
necessity is the immediate re- 
sult* of the materiality of man ; 
for mechanism is the undoubt- 
ed consequence of materialism: 
and that mai\is wholly mate- 
rial, is eminently subservient 
to the mere humanity of Christ. 
For if no man have a soul dis- 
tinct from his body, Christ,(who 
in all other respects appeared 
as a man) could not have a soul 
which had existed before his 
body : and the doctrine of the 
pre-existence of souls, (of which 
the pre-existence of Christ is 
a branch,) will be effectually 



MEL 



17* 



MEN 



overturned.* See Necessarians 
and Socinians. 

*MELATONI, the disciples 
of Melato, who believing the de- 
ity to be corporeal, supposed 
the creation of Adam in the 
« image of God," to refer to his 
bodily form.f 

MELCHITES, the Syrian, 
Egyptian, and other eastern 
christians in the Levant, who 
(though not Greeks) follow the 
doctrines of the Greek church, 
except in some points which 
relate to ceremonies and eccle- 
siastical discipline. They were 
called Melchites, i. e. Royalists, 
by their adversaries, by way 
of reproach, on account of their 
implicit submission to the edict 
of the emperour Marcion, in 
favour of the council of dial- 
cedon4 

MELCHIZEDECKIANS, 
a denomination which arose 
about the beginning of the third 
century. They affirmed that 
Mclchizedec was not a man, 
but a heavenly power superiour 
to Jesus Christ : for Melchize- 
dec, they said, was the inter- 
cessor and mediator of the an- 
gels, as Jesus Christ was for 
men ; and his priesthood was 
only a copy of that of the for- 
mer. See Hieracitcs and Thco- 
dotians. 



It may be remarked here that 
the Hutchinsonians believe that 
Melchizedec was no other than 
Jesus Christ himself. 

MELETIANS, the follow- 
ers of Meletius, an Egyptian 
bishop, who, being deposed for 
sacrificing to idols, affected 
great severity against apos- 
tates, and like the Novatians, 
refused to re-admit them on 
their repentance.^ 

MENANDR1ANS, a de- 
nomination in the first century, 
from Menander, a supposed dis- 
ciple of Simon Magus. Ho 
pretended to be one of the axons 
sent from the pleroma, or celes- 
tial regions, to succour the 
souls that lay groaning under 
oppression j and to support 
them against the demons that 
hold the reins of empire in this 
sublunary world.[| 

♦MEND AI, or Mendjeans, 
otherwise called Christians of 
St John, or Hemero Baptists, 
which see. " These ambiguous 
christians (says Mosheim) 
dwell in Persia and Arabia, and 
principally at Bassora, and 
their religion consists in bodi- 
ly washings, performed fre- 
quently and with great solem- 
nity.^ 

♦MENDICANTS, or Beg* 
ging Friars: several religious 



* Priestley's Disquisitions on Matter and Spirit, vol. i p. 4 — 163 ; vol. ii. on 
Philosophical Necessity, p. 8 — 193. History of Early Opiuions, vol. i p. 211, 
212. Correspondence between Priestley and Price, p. 118 — 359. Crombie's 
Essay on Philosophical Necessity. 

■J- Ross' View of Religions, p. 211. 

i Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 31. Collier's Hist. Diet. vol. ii. 

§ Mosh.'im, vol. i p. 384, 385, new ed. 

|| Mosheii.i, vol. i. p. 116. Pormey's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. SI. 

1 Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 266, 267, new cd. 



MEN 



173 



MEN 



orders in popish countries, who, 
having no settled revenues, are 
supported by charitable con- 
tributions.* 

MENNONITES, a society 
of baptists in Holland : so 
called from Menno Simonis, of 
Friesland, who lived in the six- 
teenth century. He was orig- 
inally a Romish priest, but 
joined a party of the Anabap- 
tists, and becoming their lead- 
er, reduced the system to con- 
sistency and moderation. The 
Mennonites maintain that prac- 
tical piety is the essence of re- 
ligion, and that the surest mark 
of the true church is the sanc- 
tity of its members. They 
plead for universal toleration 
in religion ; and debar none 
from their assemblies who lead 
pious lives, and own the scrip- 
tures for the word of God. 
They teach that infants are not 
the proper subjects of baptism ; 
and that the ministers of the 
gospel ought not to receive sal- 
aries. They object to the terms 
person and trinity, as not con- 
sistent with the simplicity of 
the gospel. They deny the 
lawfulness of repelling force by 
force, and consider war in all 
its shapes as unchristian and 
unjust ; they also teach that it 
is unlawful to take an oath on 
any occasion ; and are extreme- 
ly averse to the infliction of 
capital punishments. 

In their private meetings ev- 
ery one has the liberty to speak, 

* Buck*s Theological Dictionary 



to expound the scriptures, and 
to pray. They assemble (or 
used to do so) twice every 
year from all parts of Hol- 
land, at Rynsbourg, a village 
two leagues from Leyden, at 
which time they receive the 
communion, sitting at a table 
in the manner of the indepen- 
dents ; but in their form of 
discipline they are said more 
to resemble the presbyterians* 

The ancient Mennonites pro- 
fessed a contempt of erudition 
and science ; and excluded all 
from their communion, who de- 
viated in the least from the 
most rigorous rules of simplici- 
ty and gravity ; but this prim- 
itive austerity is greatly di- 
minished in their most consid- 
erable societies. Those, who 
adhere to their ancient disci- 
pline, are called Flemings, or 
Flandrians. The whole sect 
were formerly called Water- 
landians, from the district in 
which they lived. 

The Mennonites in Pennsyl- 
vania do not baptize by im- 
mersion, though they adminis- 
ter the ordinance to none but 
adult persons. Their common 
method is this : The person to 
be baptized kneeling, the min- 
ister holds his hands over him, 
into which the deacon pours 
water, and through which it 
runs on the head of the bap- 
tized ; after which, follow im- 
position of hands and pray- 
er.! 



f Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. iv. p. 151—162. Diet. Arts and Sciences, 



YoLiii. p. 2,037. 



Edwards' Hist, of the Amer, Baptists, vol. I p. 94* 



MET 



174 



MET 



MEN OF UNDERSTAND. 

ING. This title distinguished 
a sect, which appeared in Flan- 
ders and Brussels in the year 
1511. They owed their origin 
to an illiterate man, named 
Egidius Cantor, and to Wil- 
liam of Hildenison, a Carme- 
lite monk. They pretended to 
be honoured with celestial vis- 
ions; and declared the approach 
of a new revelation more perfect 
than that of the gospel. They 
held that the resurrection was 
accomplished in the person of 
Jesus, and no other was to be 
expected ; that the inward man 
was not defiled by the outward 
actions, whatever they were ; 
and that the pains of hell were 
to have an end. 

This denomination seems to 
have been a branch of the 
brethren and sisters of the Free 
Spirit; and their system em- 
braced some peculiarities both of 
the Mystics and Universalists.* 

METHODISTS, a name giv- 
en in the seventeenth century 
to a new species of polemic 
doctors, who distinguished 
themselves by new and ingen- 
ious methods of defending the 
Roman Catholic church against 
the attacks of the protcstants.f 
The same name, and for the 
same reason, had been applied 
to certain ancient physicians, 
who were celebrated for their 
skill and ingenuity* 

Of late years the term lias 
been applied to ministers and 
private christians, both in and 
out of the establishment, who 

* ftfosheim, vol. ill. p. 276, 



have been remarkable for their 
zeal and activity in promoting 
their views of religion. More 
correctly taken, however, it ap- 
plies to a large body of relig- 
ious persons, neither strict 
churchmen nor regular dissen- 
ters, of whose rise and history 
the following is a brief abstract. 
This denomination was found- 
ed in the year 1729, by Messrs. 
John and Charles Wesley, and 
Mr. Morgan. In November 
of that year, the former being 
then fellow of Lincoln college, 
he began to spend some even- 
ings in reading the Greek tes- 
tament with his brother, Mr. 
Morgan, commoner of Christ- 
Church, and Mr. Kirkham, of 
Merton college. Not long af- 
terwards two or three pupils of 
Mr. John Wesley and one of 
Mr. Charles Wesley's obtained 
leave to attend these meetings. 
They then began to visit the 
sick, and the prisoners who 
were confined in the castle. 
Two years after they were 
joined by Mr. Ingham, Mr. 
Broughton, and Mr. Hervey ; 
and in 1735, by the celebrated 
George Whitfield, then in his 
eighteenth year. At this time 
their number in Oxford amount- 
ed to about fourteen. They 
obtained their name, it is said, 
from the exact regularity of 
their lives, or the correct meth- 
od in which they disposed of 
their time. 

In October 1735, Messrs. 
John and Charles Wesley, Mr. 
Ingham, and Mr. Delamotte, 



\ Ibid. vol. iv. p. 307. 



MET 



173 



MET 



embarked for Georgia, in or- 
der to preach the gospel to the 
Indians. They were at first 
favourably received, but in a 
short time lost the affection of 
the people ; and on account of 
some differences with the store- 
keeper, Mr. Wesley was oblig- 
ed to return to England. He 
was, however, soon succeeded 
by Mr. Whitfield, whose re- 
peated labours in this country 
are well known. 

On Mr. Whitfield's return 
to England in 1741, he de- 
clared his full assent to the doc- 
trines of Calvin ; Mr. Wesley, 
on the contrary, professed those 
of Arminius, and had written 
in favour of universal redemp- 
tion and perfection, and very 
strongly against election. 

The doctrines of the Calvin- 
ists and Jlrminians may be 
seen under these articles. The 
leading principles common to 
both are said to be " Salvation 
by faith only in Jesus Christ, per- 
ceptible conversion, and an as- 
surance of reconciliation with 
God :" but whether they both 
mean exactly the same things 
by these terms, may well be 
questioned. The Calvinists, 
when speaking of justification 
by faith alone, for instance, do 
not mean that we are justified 
by it as an act of our own, but 
as having respect to the righteous- 
ness of Christ. The imputa- 
tion of faith, therefore, with 
them, is the same thing as the 
imputation of Christ's right- 
eousness. But Mr. Wesley's 



views on this subject are as 
follows : w All I teach (says 
he) respects either the nature 
and condition of justification, 
the nature and condition of 
salvation, the nature of justifi- 
cation and saving faith, or the 
author of faith and salva- 
tion. 

I. " The nature of justifica- 
tion: That justification, of 
which the articles and homilies 
speak, signifies present forgive- 
ness, pardon of sin, and conse- 
quently acceptance with God. 
Rom. iii. 25. I believe the con- 
dition of this is faith : Rom. iv. 
8. &c. I mean not only that 
without faith we cannot be jus- 
tified ; but also that as soon as 
any one has true faith, in that 
moment he is justified. Good 
works follow this faith, (Luke 
vi. 43.) but cannot go before it. 

II. ** By salvation I mean, 
not barely, according to the vul- 
gar notion, deliverance from 
sin ; but the renewal of our 
souls after the image of God, 
in righteousness and true holi- 
ness. This implies all holy and 
heavenly temper — all holiness 
of conversation. 

III. " Faith is a divine, su- 
pernatural evidence, or con- 
viction (*A*y#*) of things not 
seen — as being either passed, 
future, or spiritual. Justifying 
faith implies a sure trust and 
confidence that Christ loved 
me and gave himself for me. 
And the moment a penitent sin- 
ner believes this, God pardons 
and absolves him. And as 



MET 



176 



MET 



soon as his pardon or justifica- 
tion is witnessed to him by the 
Holy Ghost, he is saved.* 

IV. « The author of faith and 
salvation is God alone. He it 
is that works in us both to will 
and to do. He is the sole giv- 
er of every good gift ; and the 
sole author of every good work. 
There is no more of power 
than of merit in man ; but as 
all merit is in the Son of God, 
in what he hath done and suf- 
fered for us, so all power is in 
the Spirit of God. And there- 
fore every man, in order to be- 
lieve unto salvation, must re- 
ceive the Holy Ghost."f 

On no subject were Mr. 
Wesley's sentiments more ex- 
cepted against by religious per- 
sons, than on that of perfection* 
This he explained to mean, 
w such a degree of the love of 
God and the love of man ; such 
a degree of the love of justice, 
truth, holiness, and purity, as 
will remove from the heart ev- 
ery contrary disposition to- 
wards God or man j and that 
this should be our state of mind 
in every situation, and in every 
circumstance, of life." Even 
this perfection, however, at its 
greatest height, would not in- 
( hide absolute freedom from er- 
rour or mistake, nor from (sin- 
less) infirmities or temptations : 
nor does it imply perfection in 
degree, so as not to admit of 



continual increase or growth in 
grace.^: 

As to the societies formed by 
Mr. Wesley, the only condition 
required of members, is " a de- 
sire to be saved from their 
sins ;" and these are formed 
into small companies, or class* 
es 9 of from twelve to twenty 
persons ; one of whom is styled 
the class-leader, whose office it 
is to examine, to superintend, 
and to exhort. He usually 
meets his class once a week, 
and once a week he usually 
meets the minister and stew- 
ards to make his report. Sev- 
eral congregations connected, 
within the compass of ten or 
fifteen miles, form a circuit, to 
which two or three preachers 
are appointed, one of whom is 
called the superintendent; and 
once in the quarter the preach- 
ers meet and examine all the 
classes. Several circuits form 
a district, all the preachers of 
which meet annually and send 
minutes of their proceedings to 
the conference. The confer- 
ence is an annual meeting of the 
preachers at some one of their 
principal places in rotation. 
This is their supreme court, 
from which lies no appeal. 

The public worship of the 
Methodists is much like that of 
the dissenters ; but at a few of 
their principal places they adopt 
the service of the church of 



* This u witness of the Spirit" is differently understood. Some seem to 
•suasion that the person 19 converted. Others think it 

necessary, that >n should be {bunded upon evidence. To prove this 

i iii. 14. 
f Farther appeal to men of reason and religion, 
•rmoii ou P 



MET 



177 



MET 



England. Once a quarter 
watch-nights are held,* and also 
love-feasts, both of which are 
confined to members of their 
society. The former are meet- 
ings for prayer and exhortation, 
usually continued till midnight. 
The latter are friendly meetings, 
at which, besides social wor- 
ship, the members eat together a 
small piece of cake or bun, in 
token of brotherly communion, 
and drink water ; on these oc- 
casions something is collected 
for the poor, and the whole 
concluded with prayer. These 
meetings are formed on the 
model of the ancient Jlgapce, or 
« feasts of charity,' mentioned 
by St. Jude, ver. 12. 

The zeal of both Messrs. 
Whitfield and Wesley was very 
great, and their labours were 
abundant. They* were both 
professed members of the 
church of England, though nei- 
ther of them confined himself, 
in all respects, within its rules. 
The former was most distin- 
guished for his powerful elo- 
quence, which arrested the at- 
tention and overawed the mind : 
the latter, for cool, persuasive 
reasoning, and for a kind of 
legislative wisdom, which he 
exercised in forming his numer- 
ous followers into societies, and 
establishing such a connexion 
and subordination among them, 
as to give a greater stability to 
his denomination. 

Since the death of Mr. Wes- 



ley, his people have been di- 
vided with respect to discipline. 
He himself had always profess- 
ed a strong attachment to the 
church of England, and ex- 
horted the societies under his 
care to attend her service, and 
receive the Lord's supper, from 
the regular clergy. But some 
of the societies petitioned to 
have preaching in their own 
chapels during church hours, 
and the Lord's supper adminis- 
tered by the travelling preach- 
ers. This request he generally 
refused ; but where it could be 
conveniently done, sent some 
of the clergymen who officiated 
at the new chapel in London, 
to perform these solemn ser- 
vices. At the first conference 
after his death, which was held 
at Manchester, the preachers 
published a declaration, in 
which they said, that they would 
« take up the plan as Mr* Wes- 
ley had left it." This was by 
no means satisfactory to many 
of the preachers and people, 
who thought that religious lib- 
erty ought to be extended to 
all the societies, which desired 
it. In order to favour this 
change, several respectable 
preachers came forward, and 
by the writings which they cir- 
culated through the connexion, 
paved the way for a pacifica- 
tion ; by which it was stipulat- 
ed, that in every place where a 
three-fold majority of class- 
leaders, stewards, and trustees, 



* One of the watch-nights is generally held on the night immediately pre- 
ceding 1 the new year's day ; when the infant year is ushered in with songs of 
gladness, praise, and thanksgiving. See Nightingale's Methodism, p. 217. 



MET 



178 



MET 



desired it, the people should 
have preaching in church hours, 
and the sacraments of baptism 
and the Lord's supper admin- 
istered to them. 

The spirit of inquiry did not 
stop here; for it appeared to 
them agreeable both to reason 
and the custom of the primi- 
tive church, that the people 
should have a voice in the tem- 
poral concerns of the societies, 
vote in the election of church 
officers, and give their suffrages 
in spiritual concerns. The sub- 
ject produced a variety of ar- 
guments on both sides of the 
question. At a conference held 
at Leeds in 1T97, there were 
delegates from many societies 
in various parts, who were in- 
structed to request, that the 
people might have a voice in 
the formation of their own laws, 
the choice of their own officers, 
and the distribution of their own 
property. The preachers pro- 
ceeded to discuss two motions : 
Shall delegates from the socie- 
ties be admitted into the con- 
ference? Shall circuit-stewards 
be admitted into the district 
me i Both these motions 

; <ived, and conse- 
of accommo- 
fcioii between the parties were 
en up. From hence a plan 
is proposed of a m:w con- 
i ion. A regular meeting 
w:is formed 9 and Mr. William 
Thorn being chosen president, 
and Mr.AlexanderKilham f sec- 
, the meeting proceeded 
to arrange the plan for supply* 



adhered to them, with preachers. 
The president and secretary 
were also desired to draw up 
rules of church-government, 
that they might be circulated 
through the societies for their 
approbation. The plan, being 
drawn up and printed, was ex- 
amined by select committees- 
through the connexion, and, 
with a few alterations, was ac- 
cepted by their conference of 
preachers and delegates. 

The preachers and people are 
incorporated in all meetings 
for business, not by temporary 
concession, but by the essential 
principles of their constitution ; 
for the private members choose 
the. class-leaders, the leaders' 
meeting nominates the stew- 
ards; and the society confirms 
or rejects the nomination. The 
quarterly meetings are com- 
posed of the general stewards 
and representatives, chosen by 
the different societies of the 
circuits, and the fourth quar- 
terly meeting of the year ap- 
points the preacher and dele- 
gate of every circuit, that shall 
attend the general conference. 
For a further account of their 
principles and discipline, the 
reader is referred to a pamphlet, 
entitled, " General rules of the 
united societies of Methodists in 
the JSTeiv Connexion." 

The Calvinistic Methodists 
are not incorporated into a 
body as the Arminiansare: but 
are chiefly under the direction 
or influence of their ministers 
or patrons. There are many 



ions which egations in London and 



MET 179 MIL 

elsewhere, called Methodists, The New Connexion hare 

though they are in neither of about twenty circuits, forty 

the above connexions. Some preachers, and seven thousand 

of these are supplied by a va- members ; nor do they seem 

riety of ministers; and others, likely to increase, the parent 

bordering more on the congre- society having conceded some 

gational plan, have a resident points which occasioned the 

minister. separation. Their discipline 

A distinct connexion, upon borders on that of the Indc- 

Mr. Whitfield's plan, was in- pendents, 

stituted and patronized by the There seems to be no meth- 

late Lady Huntingdon, and od of estimating the numbers of 

this still subsists. the Calvinistic Methodists with 

By the minutes of the con- any tolerable accuracy ; but it 

ferencein July 1814, it appears, is probable that in England, 

that the numbers in the socie- they are at least equal to the 

ties, continuing the connexion Arminian, and in Wales, con- 

of Mr. Wesley, are as follow ; siderably more numerous.* 

and these, it must be remem- MILLENNARIANS, or 

bered, form at most but a Chiliasts, a name given to all 

moiety of their public congre- who believe that the saints will 

gations. literally reign on earth with 

Great Britain . . 173,885 Christ a thousand years after 

Ireland 29 388 the first resurrection, before the 

France .... 14 en d °f ^ e world. The former 

Gibraltar WW 65 appellation is of Latin original, 

Sierra Leone ... 96 the latter of Greek, and both 

Nova Scotia, Quebec, are of the same import. 

and Newfoundland 1,570 T he ancient Millennarians 

West Indies 17,002 lield tliat > atter tlie coming of 

United States 214,327 antichrist, and the destruction 

J. which will follow, there shall 

Total 436,347 be a first resurrection of the 

Travelling Preacher s 9 not in- just alone — that all who shall 

eluded in the preceding account be found upon earth, both good 

Great Britain 685 and bad, shall continue alive : 

Ireland 114 — that Jesus Christ will then 

Foreign Missionaries 56 descend from heaven in his 

United States 678 glory — that the city of Jerusa- 

lem will be rebuilt, in the man- 

437,880 ner described, Rev. xxi. and 

• See Miles' Chronol. History of Methodism. Gillies' Life of Whitfield. 
Coke's Life of Wesley. Wesley's Sermons. Benson's Apology. Buck's The- 
ology. Diet, 



MEL 



180 



MIL 



Ezek. xxxvi. Here they sup- 
pose the Lord Jesus will fix 
the seat of his empire, and reign 
a thousand years with the 
saints, patriarchs, and prophets, 
who will enjoy perfect and un- 
interrupted felicity, in a second 
paradise, more glorious than 
that of Eden. This opinion is 
adopted in the epistle of Bar- 
nabas, by Papias, Irenseus, 
Justin Martyr, and many more 
of the ancient fathers ; and is 
illustrated and confirmed by 
many learned moderns, from 
whom we shall subjoin an ab- 
stract of their opinions. 

Dr. Thomas Burnet and Mr. 
Winston concur in asserting 
that the earth will not be en- 
tirely consumed ; hut that the 
matter of which it consists will 
be purified, by the action of 
fire ; from these materials, as 
from a second chaos, there will, 
by the will of God, arise a new 
creation : « new heavens and 
a new earth. 5 ' The earth, and 
the atmosphere, will then be so 
restored as to resemble what 
they were in the paradisaical 
state ; and consequently, to ren- 
der it a most delightful abode 
for man. In proof of this hy- 
pothesis they urge the follow- 
texts: — Matt, xiii.41 — 43. 
Luke xvii. 29, 30. Arts iii. 21. 
Heb.i. 11, 12. 2 Pet. iii. 13, &c. 
They suppose that the earth, 
thus beautiful and improved, 
shall he inhabited by those who 
inherit, the first resurrection, 
and who shall here enjoy a 
very considerable degree of 
happiness, though not equal to 



that W'hich is to succeed th& 
general judgment, which shall 
open when the thousand years, 
mentioned in Rev. xx. 4 — 6. 
shall be expired. 

Though Mr. Fleming does 
not entirely agree with the 
above, he interprets Rev. xx. 
6. as referring to a proper res- 
urrection, of which, he sup- 
poses, the event recorded in 
Matt, xxvii. 52, was a pledge. 
He conjectures that the most 
eminent saints of the old testa- 
ment times ih$n arose, and as- 
cended with Christ to heaven ; 
agreeably to this, he apprehends 
that the saints who are to be 
subjects of the first resurrec- 
tion, after appearing to some 
of the inhabitants of this earth, 
which may be the mean of re- 
viving religion among them, 
will ascend to heaven in tri- 
umph. To this peculiar privi- 
lege of the martyrs, and some 
other eminent saints, St. Paul 
is supposed to refer, Phil. iii. 
11. 

Mr. Ray agrees that there 
will be a renovation of the 
earth ; and though lie does not 
suppose that the same animals 
shall be raised again, yQt he 
thinks that other animals, as 
well as vegetables, will be pro- 
duced in higher degrees of 
beauty and perfection than ever 
before. 

Dr. Cotton Mather supposed 
that the conflagration will take 
place at Christ's second per- 
sonal coining: that after this 
great event God will create 
< new heavens, and a new earth/ 



MIL 



181 



MIL 



The raised saints will inhabit 
the new heavens, attending on 
our Saviour there, and receiv- 
ing immense rewards for their 
services and sufferings for his 
sake. The new earth will be 
a paradise, and inhabited by 
those who shall be caught up 
to meet the Lord, and be with 
him in safety, while they see 
the earth flaming under them. 
They shall then return to the 
new earth, possess it, and peo- 
ple it with an offspring who 
shall be sinless and immortal. 
The risen saints who shall in- 
habit the new heavens, and 
" neither marry nor be given in 
marriage," will be sent down 
from time to time to the new 
earth, to be teachers and rulers, 
and have power over nations ; 
and v the will of God be done on 
earth as it is in heaven." This 
dispensation will continue for 
one thousand years. There 
will also be a translation from 
the new earth to the new heav- 
ens, either successively during 
the thousand years, or all at 
once, after the termination of 
that period. 

Mr. Kett, in a late publica- 
tion, entitled, History the Inter- 
preter of Prophecy, has advanc- 
ed a new plan, of which the 
following is an imperfect sketch. 
He supposes, that the antichrist 
(or the many antichrists J spok- 
en of in the new testament, 
means a power, a person, or a 
succession of persons, who were 
to arise in the world, and ei- 
ther deceitfully arrogate to 
themselves the place and office 



of Christ, or exercise a direct 
enmity to him and his religion : 
— that there appear to be three 
great forms of antichrist ; viz. 
Popery, Mohammedanism, and 
Infidelity, which were to pre- 
vail a certain time for the tri- 
al and punishment of the cor- 
rupted church of Christ — that 
at the present period, the Infi- 
del form of antichrist is begun, 
and will continue to prevail 
while the Papal and Moham- 
medan decline— that the rise, 
progress, and establishment of 
the Infidel power is predicted 
by the little horn of the beast in 
the visions of Daniel, and the 
second beast and his image in the 
revelation of St. John. — Mr. 
Kett supposes, that when the 
Infidel power shall have reach- 
ed its summit of dominion ; 
when the Jews are collected in- 
to their own land ; when the 
church, purified by tribulation, 
shall be made ready to receive 
her Lord, Christ shall person- 
ally appear, and finish the reign 
of antichrist in all its various 
forms : the just shall be raised 
from the dead, and a new king- 
dom of peace and everlasting 
happiness be established under 
the immediate government of 
the Redeemer, agreeably to the 
description in Dan. ii. 35. 
Rev. xx. 4 — 6. and other pas- 
sages. When this glorious pe- 
riod of the millennium shall 
commence, the New Jerusalem 
will be separated from the world 
as the garden of Eden, but the 
gates of entrance shall stand 
open : the world will continue 



MIL 



182 



MIL 



a state of probation to all but 
those who arose from the dead ; 
it will, however, be enlightened 
by the communication of those 
blessed instructors. At the 
expiration of the thousand 
years, Satan will be loosed, to 
deceive the nations without the 
city : but as soon as he shall 
attempt to disturb the peace of 
the saints, fire will descend out 
of heaven, and devour the in- 
corrigible sinners. The final 
judgment, the resurrection of 
the wicked, the destruction of 
the world, the everlasting pun- 
ishment of Satan and his fol- 
lowers, and the admission of 
the saints into eternal felicity 
in the heavens, will immediate- 
ly succeed. 

Dr. Gill, bishop Newton, and 
many other eminent divines, 
adopt the literal interpretation 
of the prophecies : but others 
of equal learning and piety, 
incline to a figurative interpre- 
tation of these scriptures, as 
Will be seen in the following 
instances : 

Dr. Whitby supposes the 
millennium to refer entirely to 
the prosperous state of the chris- 
tian church after the fall of an- 
tichrist, and the conversion of 
the Jews — that then shall begin 
a glorious and undisturbed reign 
Of Christ over the Jew and 
Gentile, to continue a thousand 
years — and as John the Baptist 
was Elias, because he came in 
the spirit and porwtr of Etta* : 
so shall this be the church of 
Che martyrs, and those, "who 
have not rec 



the beast/ 5 because the spirit 
and purity of the times of the 
primitive martyrs shall return. 
He argues, that it would be a 
degradation to the glorified 
saints to dwell upon earth ; and 
that it is contrary to the genius 
of the christian religion to sup- 
pose it built on temporal prom- 
ises. 

Mr. Worthington's scheme is, 
that the gospel, being intended 
to restore the ruins of the fall, 
will gradually meliorate the 
world, till, by a train of natural 
consequences, under the influ- 
ence of divine providence and 
grace, it is restored to a para- 
disaical state. He supposes 
that this plan is already advan- 
ced through some important 
stages, among which he reck- 
ons (with Dr. Sherlock) the 
amendment of the earth's nat- 
ural state at the deluge to have 
been a considerable one. He 
considers all improvements in 
learning and arts, as well as 
the propagation of the gospel 
among the heathen nations, as 
the process of this scheme : but 
he apprehends much greater 
advances are to be made about 
the year of Christ 2,000, 
when the millennium will com- 
mence ; which shall be, accord- 
ing to him, such a glorious state 
as Dr. Whitby supposes ; but 
with this additional circum- 
stance, that, after some inter- 
ruption from the last effects of 
wickedness by Gog and Ma- 
gog, this shall terminate in the 
still nobler state of the new 
heaven and the new earth spok- 



MIL 



18S 



MIL 



en of in Rev. xxi. and xxii. 
when he supposes that all nat- 
ural and moral evil, and death 
itself, shall be banished from 
the earth : but good men shall 
continue in the highest state 
of rectitude, and in the great- 
est imaginable degree of terres- 
trial felicity, till the final com- 
ing of Christ and universal 
judgment close this delightful 
scene, perhaps several thousand 
years afterwards. Indeed, he 
seems to apprehend that the 
consummation of all things will 
not happen till about the year 
of the world 25,920, the end of 
the great year, as the Platon- 
ics called it, when the equinox- 
es shall have revolved. 

Mr. Low-man agrees with 
Dr. Whitby in supposing the 
scripture description of the mil- 
lennium to be figurative, repre- 
senting the happy state of the 
church on its deliverance from 
the persecution and corruption 
of the third period. He sup- 
posed the book of the Revela- 
tion, after the fifth chapter, to be 
a prophetic representation of the 
most remarkable events which 
were to befal the christian 
church from that time to the 
end. He divides the remain- 
der into seven periods ; the 
first, represented by the seals, 
shows the state of the church 
under the heathen Roman em- 
perours from the year 95 to 323 : 
- — the second, that of the trum- 
pets, relates to what was to 
happen in the christian church, 
from 337 to 750, when the Mo- 
hanunedan conquests ceased in 



the West : — the third represents 
the state of the church and 
world in the time of the last 
head of the Roman government, 
i. e. under the popes, for l,26u 
years ; viz. from 756 to 2,016 : 
each of the vials which are 
poured out, he reckons to de- 
note some great judgment up- 
on the papal kingdom; the 
sixth and seventh vials he sup- 
poses are yet to come, and that 
the seventh will complete the 
final destruction of Rome — the 
fourth is that of a thousand 
years, or the millennium, in 
which the church will be in a 
most prosperous state, a. d. 
2,000 to S,000 ; so that the sev- 
enth chiliad is to be a kind 
of sabbath — the fifth is the re- 
newed invasion of the enemies 
of the church for a short time 
not defined, but which is to end 
in their final extirpation and 
ruin, (chap. xx. 7 — 10.) — the 
sixth is the general resurrec- 
tion and final judgment; (chap* 
xx. 11 — 15.) these terminate 
in the seventh grand period, in 
which the saints are represent- 
ed as fixed in a state of ever- 
lasting triumph and happiness 
in the heavenly world, chap, 
xxi. 1 — 5. 

Dr. Bellamy supposes that the 
millennium will be a glorious 
scene of Christ's spiritual reign 
on earth, when universal peace 
shall prevail ; wars, famines, 
and all desolating judgments 
be at an end ; industry shall 
flourish, and all luxury, intem- 
perance, and extravagance, be 
banished. Then this globe will 



MIL 



184 



MIL 



be able to sustain with food 
and raiment a number of in- 
habitants immensely greater 
than ever dwelt upon it at one 
time : and if all those shall, as 
the scripture asserts, "know 
the Lord, from the least to the 
greatest," for one thousand 
years together, it will naturally 
come to pass, that there will be 
more saved in that thousand 
years, than ever before dwelt 
upon the face of the earth, from 
the foundation of the world. 

Some understand the thou- 
sand years in the Revelation, 
(agreeably to other prophetical 
numbers in that book,) a day 
for a year, which would extend 
the period of the millennium, 
(as the scripture year contains 
360 days) to 360,000 years; in 
which there might possibly be 
millions saved to one which has 
been lost.* 

All the above systems res- 
pecting the millennium admit 
the eternity of future punish- 
ment. The plan of the late Mr. 
Winchester terminates in the 
universal restoration of all in- 
telligent creatures. 

This author supposes that, as 
an introduction to the millen- 
nium, the power and empire of 
the Turks shall be weakened, 
to make way lor the return of 
the Jews to their own land, 
which event is expressly fore- 
told in Ezek. xxxix. 25 — 28 : 
and many other passages : that 
after their return, their enemies 
shall come against them in vast 



numbers, called by the names 
Gog and Magog, Ezek. xxxvih 
1 — 7. — that they shall take and 
plunder the city of Jerusalem, 
and bring the Jews to the brink 
of destruction — that at the 
height of their triumph, Christ, 
the manifested Jehovah, shall 
appear in the clouds of heaven, 
according to Zech. xiv. 14.— 
that his appearance shall effect 
the conversion of the Jews, 
who shall receive him as the 
true Messiah ; They shall look 
on him whom they have pierced. 
Zech. xii.?10 j Rev. i. 7. The 
dead saints shall then be raised, 
the living saints changed, and 
both caught up to meet the Lord 
in the air, and descend with him 
to reign on earth, when the 
glorious millennium shall com- 
mence. In that period the Jews 
shall be again acknowledged 
as the people of God; the 
twelve tribes settled in their 
own land, under the govern- 
ment of the Saviour, and be a 
holy and happy people ; Jeru- 
salem shall be rebuilt in great- 
er splendour than ever ; all na- 
tions shall yearly repair to this 
city to worship the Lord. (Zee. 
xiv. 16 — 20.) There shall be 
a glorious temple erected, (Ez. 
xl. 41,42.) in which the Lord 
Jesus shall hold his court: 
from ihenc e he shall send his 
saints through the whole earth, 
to instruct and bless mankind. 
At this blessed period satan 
Shall be bound; the curse shall 
be removed from the earth ; 

* To this period Dr. Priestiey inclines in his Theological Institutes: and 
Mr. Towers, in his " Illustrations of Prophecy/' 



MIL 



185 



MOD 



the obstructions which hinder 
the success of the gospel remov- 
ed j all be united in one reli- 
gion ; wars, famines, earth- 
quakes, tempests, and pesti- 
lence shall cease ; the inhabi- 
tants of the world be more nu- 
merous than ever, and all kinds 
of spiritual and temporal bless- 
ings be the portion of mankind. 
At the end of the millennium, 
Satan shall be loosed to deceive 
the nations of the earth; a 
mighty army, with this great 
apostate at their head, shall 
march in a hostile manner a- 
gainst the camp of the saints ; 
but fire shall immediately de- 
scend from heaven to devour 
them. This army is described 
by the Gog and Magog of St. 
John, which our author sup- 
poses different from the Gog 
and Magog mentioned by Eze- 
kiel. This destruction will be 
immediately followed by the 
resurrection of all the dead, and 
the day of judgment. After 
this the Lord, with all the re- 
deemed, shall ascend to heaven ; 
and the conflagration shall take 
place, by which the earth shall 
be reduced to a globe of fire, 
and be the final stage of pun- 
ishment ; where the wicked 
shall endure the pangs of the 
second death, and be tormented 
for ages of ages after the day 
of judgment. At length the 



renovation of the heavens and 
earth shall take place, accord- 
ing to various prophetic passa- 
ges, particularly Isaiah Ixv. 17. 
2 Pet. iii. 13 ; Rev. xxi. 1, 2. 
After the new heavens and 
earth are prepared, as a new 
stage for the wonders of God's 
redeeming love, the holy city, 
or New Jerusalem, shall de- 
scend as the residence of the 
saints, during those ages, in 
which the great work of re- 
deeming lost sinners is carried 
on. The saints shall reign with 
Christ, and be kings and priests, 
till all fallen intelligences are 
restored, sin and misery cease, 
and holiness and happiness be 
absolutely universal and com- 
plete, as is expressed in Rev, 
xxi. 1.* See Universalists. 

*MODALISTS. See Pre- 
existents and Sabellians. 

MOHAMMEDANS. See 
Mahometans. 

MOLINISTS, the followers 
of Lewis Molina, a Spanish Je- 
suit, professor of divinity in the 
university of Ebora, in Portu- 
gal. In the year 1 598, he pub- 
lished a book, showing that the 
operations of divine grace were 
entirely consistent with the 
freedom of the human will ; and 
introduced an hypothesis to 
remove the difficulties attend- 
ing the doctrines of predestina- 
tion and liberty. He asserted, 



* Broughton's Hist. Lib, vol. ii. p. 93, 94. Doddridge's Lectures, p. 581 — 
590. Burnet's Theoiy, p. 209. Winston's Theory, p. 288. Fleming's Chris- 
tology, p. 29 — 33. Kay's Discourses, p. 407 — 415. Whitby's Annotations, vol. 
ii. p. 740. Worthington on the Extent of Redemption. " Lowman on Reve- 
lations, p. 243. Mather's Life, p. 14) — 143. Bellamy on the Millennium, p. 65 
— -6S, Encyclopedia, vol. L p. 290—309 ; vol. ii. p. 299—306 ; vol. xii. p. 29. 
Rett's Hist, of Prophecv. Winchester's Lectures on Prophecy, 2 vols. 8vo. 

24 



MON 



186 



MOX 



that the decree of predestina- 
tion to eternal glory was found- 
ed on a previous knowledge 
and consideration of the merits 
of the elect ; that the grace, 
from whose operations these 
merits are derived, is not effi- 
cacious by its own intrinsic 
power only, but also by the 
consent of our own will, and 
because it is administered in 
those circumstances, in which 
the Deity foresees that it will 
be efficacious. This kind of 
prescience, fscientiamedia f J is 
that foreknowledge of future 
contingents, which arises from 
a perfect acquaintance with the 
nature and faculties of rational 
beings, of the circumstances in 
which they shall be placed, of 
the objects that shall be pre- 
sented to them, and of the in- 
fluence which these circum- 
stances and objects must have 
on their actions.* 1 

*MOLOKANS, an obscure 
sect of Russian dissenters, so 
called from eating milk on their 
fast days, which are usually on 
Saturday. They have a tradi- 
tion of certain miracles of 
Christ not recorded in the gos- 
pels, and are said to use cer- 
tain religious pictures peculiar 
to themselves.} 

*MONKS, fmonachij cer- 
tain persons who sec -hided 
themselves from the world to 
make the stricter profession of 
religion ; they were distin- 
guished anciently into three 
classes. Solatarics are those 
which lived alone, and remote 

• Moshcim, vol. i. p. 475, 476. 
Scotch Thcol. Diet. 



from town and from human so- 
ciety. Coenobites lived in com- 
munity with others in monas- 
teries and convents. Saraba- 
ites were strolling monks, who 
lived without any fixed rule or 
settled residence; whence the 
Mendicants, or begging friars, 
which are divided into Capu- 
chins and Franciscans. 

Monks are distinguished by 
their habits, as black, white, 
grey, &c. or by the saint whom 
they take for their patron or 
model, as Benedictines, Ber- 
nardines, Franciscans, &c. 
Before the reformation, and in 
Popish countries since, these 
Monks have been extremely 
numerous.:): 

MONARCHIANS, so called 
from believing one person only 
in the godhead. See Patri- 
passians. 

MONOPHYSITES main- 
tained, that the divine and hu- 
man natures of Christ were so 
united, as to form only one na- 
ture, yet without any change, 
confusion, or mixture of the 
two natures. They flourished 
in the fifth centurY.§ 

MONOTHELITES, a de- 
nomination so called, from 
teaching, that two natures in 
Christ's person had but one 
ivill. Their founder was Theo- 
dore, bishop of Pharan, in Ara- 
bia, in the seventh century; 
who maintained the following 
positions : (1.) That in Christ 
there were two distinct natures, 
w hi( h were so united, (though 
without the least mixture or 

■t Pinker* on\ Greek Cli. p. 331. 
§ Mosheim, vol. i. p. 420. 



MON 



187 



MON 



confusion,) as to form by their 
union only one person.— (2.) 
That the soul of Christ was 
endowed with a will, or faculty 
of volition, which is still retain- 
ed after its union with the di- 
vine nature. — (3.) That this 
faculty of volition in the soul 
of Christ was not absolutely in- 
active, but that it co-operated 
with the divine will. — (4.) That 
therefore in a certain sense 
thercwas in Christ but one will, 
and one manner of operation.^ 
MONTANISTS, a denomi- 
nation which arose in the sec- 
ond century ; so called from 
Montanus, who pretended to 
be the Paraclete, or Comforter : 
whom Christ at his departure 
promised to send his disciples, 
to lead them into all truth; 
which promise, other christians 
understand of the Holy Ghost. 
He declared that he was sent 
with a divine commission, to 
give to the moral precepts de- 
livered by Christ and his apos- 
tles the finishing touch that was 
to bring them to perfection. 
He was of opinion, that Christ 
and his apostles made, in their 
precepts, many allowances for 
the infirmities of those among 
whom they lived, and that this 
condescending indulgence ren- 
dered their system of moral 
laws imperfect and incomplete. 
He therefore inculcated the 
necessity of multiplying fasts ; 
prohibited second marriages as 
unlawful ; maintained that the 
church should refuse absolu- 
tion to those who had fallen 

* Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 36. 



into the commission of enor- 
mous sins ; and condemned all 
care of the body, especially all 
nicety of dress, and all female 
ornaments. He also gave it as 
his opinion, that philosophy, 
arts, and whatever savoured of 
polite literature, should be ban- 
ished from the christian church. 
He looked upon those christians 
as guilty of a heinous trans- 
gression, whojsavcd their lives 
by flight from the persecuting 
sword ; or who ransomed them- 
selves by money from the hands 
of their cruel and mercenary 
judges. 

It seems extraordinary, that 
Montanus should assume to 
himself the name of the Para- 
clete; but it appears probable, 
he did this under the persua- 
sion of the holy spirit eminent- 
ly residing in him, and it is 
certain that both himself and 
the prophetesses connected with 
him, Priscilla and Maximilla, 
affected extacies, and to be un- 
der a sacred violence of the 
spirit's influences. It was prob- 
ably the appearance of these 
sacred influences, and their ex- 
traordinary zeal, which drew 
Tertullian, the Latin father, 
from the bosom of the church in- 
to their communion. It does not 
appear, that the visions and 
revelations of this denomina- 
tion were intended to supersede 
the scripture, or introduce false 
doctrines ; for they related chief- 
ly to matters of ecclesiastical 
discipline, and some enlarge- 
ments on the subjects of sacred 



MUG 



188 



MYS 



prophecy. On all the grand 
points of doctrine, at least dur- 
ingTertullian'stime, they seem 
to harmonize with the ortho- 
doxy of the Roman Catholic 
church. 

This denomination had sep- 
arate assemblies. They were 
first called Cataphrygians, from 
the place where they had their 
principal abode ; they were al- 
so styled Pepuzians, from Pe- 
puza, the village where their 
leader resided.* 

MORAVIANS. See United 
Brethren. 

MUGGLETONIANS, a de- 
nomination, which arose in 
England about the year 1657 ; 
so called from their leader, 
Ludowick Muggleton, a jour- 
neyman taylor, who, with his 
associate, Reeves, set up for 
great prophets, and declared 
that their message was wholly 
spiritual ; and that whoever 
despised or rejected it, com- 
mitted the unpardonable sin 
against the Holy Ghost. They 
asserted, that they were the 
Lord's two last witnesses spok- 
en of Rev. xi. 5. &c. who should 
appear a little before the com- 
ir g of Christ, and the end of 
the world. Reeves was to act 
the part of Moses, and Muggle- 
ton to he his mouth. Among 
other things, they denied the 
doctrine of the trinity; and 
affirmed that God the father 
caipe down from heaven and 
suffered in a human form ; and 



that Elijah was taken up in a 
whirlwind to heaven, for the 
purpose of representing him 
while he remained on earth.f 

*MUSSELMANS, true be- 
lievers, i. e. in the mission of 
Mahomet. See Mahometans. 

MYSTICS. This is a name 
not confined to any particular 
division of christians ; but has 
been generally given to those, 
who maintain that the scrip- 
tures have a mystical sense, 
which must be sought after ; 
and who, laying but little stress 
on outward forms, profess to 
aspire after a pure and sublime 
devotion — an infused and pas- 
sive contemplation, through a 
silent and inward attention to 
the operations of the spirit of 
God upon the mind. They are 
said to derive their origin from 
Dionysius, the Areopagite, who 
was converted to Christianity 
in the first century, by the 
preaching of Paul at Athens. 
To support this idea, they at- 
tributed to this great man va- 
rious treatises, which others as- 
cribe to a Grecian Mystic of 
much later date, who is suppos- 
ed to have written under his 
venerable name. 

Mysticism is, however, of a 
much earlier dale, and Subsist- 
ed both in the East and among 
the Jews, assuming a variety 
of forms according to the genius 
and temper of its disciples. In 
t he christian church this denom- 
ination appeared in the third 

199, 193. Formey's Ecclcs. Hist. vol. i. 



* Mosheim's Bccles. list, vol. i. p 
p. 48. Priestley's Ecclcs. Hist vol. i. p. 254, 

| Dictionary of Arts and Sciences, vol iii. p. 2,149. Itceycs and Muggle^ 
ton's Spiritual Treatise, p. 3—23. 



MYS 



189 



MYS 



century, increased in the fourth, 
and in the fifth spread into the 
eastern provinces. In the year 
824, the supposed works of 
Dionysius kindled the flame of 
Mysticism in the western prov- 
inces. In the twelfth century, 
they took the lead in expound- 
ing the scriptures ; in the thir- 
teenth, they were the most for- 
midable antagonists of the 
schoolmen; towards the close 
of the fourteenth, they propa- 
gated their sentiments in al- 
most every part of Europe ; 
in the fifteenth and sixteenth, 
many persons of distinguished 
merit embraced their tenets ; 
and in the seventeenth, the rad- 
ical principle of Mysticism was 
adopted by the Behmenists, 
Bourignonists, Quietists, and 
Quakers. 

The ancient Mystics were 
distinguished by their profess- 
ing pure, sublime, and perfect 
devotion, with a disinterested 
love of God ; and by their as- 
piring to a state of passive con- 
templation. 

The first principles of these 
sentiments have been supposed 
to proceed from the well known 
doctrine of the Platonic school, 
(which was adopted by Origen 
and his disciples,) that the di- 
vine nature was diffused through 
all human souls, or in other 
words, that the faculty of rea- 
son, from which proceeds the 
health and vigour of the mind, 
was an emanation from God in- 
to the human soul, and compre- 
hended in it the principles and 
elements of all truth, human 



and divine. They denied, that 
men could by labour or study, 
excite this celestial flame in 
their own breast ; and therefore 
disapproved of the attempts of 
those who, by abstract reason- 
ings, endeavoured to discover 
the hidden nature of truth. 
On the contrary, they main- 
tained, that silence, tranquillity, 
repose, and solitude, accompa- 
nied with such acts of mortifi- 
cation as might tend to ex- 
tenuate and exhaust the body, 
were the means by which the 
hidden and internal word was 
excited, and of instructing men 
in the knowledge of divine 
things. " They, who behold 
with a noble contempt all hu- 
man affairs, who turn away 
their eyes from terrestrial van- 
ities, and shut all the avenues 
of the outward senses against 
the contagious influence of an 
outward world, must necessa- 
rily return to God, when the 
spirit is thus disengaged from 
the impediments which prevent 
this happy union; and in this 
blessed frame they not only 
enjoy inexpressible raptures 
from their communion with the 
supreme Being, but also are 
invested with the inestimable 
privilege of contemplating truth 
undisguised, in its native puri- 
ty, while others behold it in a 
vitiated and delusive form. 
The apostle tells us, that w the 
spirit makes intercession for 
us. Now if the Spirit pray 
in us, we must resign ourselves 
to its impulses, by remaining 
ip a state of mere inaction." 



MYS 



190 



MYS 



As the late Rev. William 
Law, who was born in 1687, 
makes a distinguished figure 
among the modern Mystics, a 
brief account of the outlines of 
his system may be acceptable. — 
He supposed taat the material 
WQpld was the region which 
originally belonged to the fallen 
angel?. At length the light 
and spirit of God entered into 
the chaos, and turned the an- 
gels' ruined kingdom into a 
paradise on earth. God then 
created man, and placed him 
there. He was made in the 
image of the triune God, : * a 
living mirror of the divine na- 
ture, formed to enjoy commun- 
ion with the Father, Son, and 
Holy Ghost, and to live on earth 
as the angels do in heaven. 
He was eudowed with immor- 
tality, so that the elements of 
this outward world could not 
have any power of acting on his 
body: but by his fall he 
changed the light, life, and spir- 
it of God, for the light, life, and 
spirit of the world. He died 
the very day of his transgres- 
sion to all the influences and 
operations of the Spirit of God 
upon him. as we die to the in- 
fluences of this world when the 
soul leaves the body ; and all 
the influences and operations 

of the elements of this life were 
open in him, as they are in any 
animal, at his birth into lliis 
world: he became an earthly 
iture, subject to the domin- 



ion of this outward world, and 
stood only in t!ie highest rank 
of animals. Bat the good:; 
of God would not leave iian in 
this condition : redemption f 
it was immediately gr; • 

and the bruiser of the serpent 
brought the life, light, and spri- 
it of heaven, once more into 
the human nature. All men, 
in consequence of the redemp- 
tion of Christ, have in them the 
first spark, or seed, of the divine 
life, as a treasure hid in the 
centre of our souls, to bring 
forth, by degrees, a new birth of 
that life which was lost in para- 
dise. No son of Adam can bo 
lost^ except by turning away 
from the Saviour within him. 
The only religion, which can 
save us, must be that which can 
raise the light, life, and spirit of 
God in our souls. Nothing can 
enter into the vegetable king- 
dom, till it have the vegetable life 
in it, or be a member of the an- 
imal kingdom, till it have the an- 
imal life. Thus all nature joins 
with the gospel in affirming, 
that no man can enter into the 
kingdom of heaven, till tho 
heavenly life is born in him. 
Nothing can be our righteous- 
ness or recovery, hut the divine 
nature of Jesus Christ derived 
from our souls. f 

The excellent Penelon, arch- 
bishop of Cambray, held an 
eminent rank among the Mys- 
tics. Sec ({niclisls. 



• " Mature (says Mr. Law) is the manifestation of the holy trinity in a tri- 
arte life of fire, lifto, and spirit." 

f IVfosheim's Eccles. Hist- vol. i. p. 222, 223. Dictionary of Arts and Sci- 



*NAZ 



191 



NEC 



N 



NaZARENES, a name o- 
riginally given to christians in 
general, on account of Jesus 
Christ's being of the city of Na- 
zareth ; but was afterwards re- 
strained to a denomination in 
the first and second centuries, 
which blended Christianity and 
Judaism together. They held 
that Christ was born of a virgin, 
and was also in a certain man- 
ner united to the divine nature. 
They refused to abandon the 
ceremonies prescribed by the 
law of Moses; but were far 
from attempting to impose the 
observance of these ceremonies 
upon gentile christians. They 
rejected those additions that 
were made to the Mosaic insti- 
tutions by the pharisees and 
doctors of the law ; but ad- 
mitted the scriptures both of 
the old and new testament. 
They also used a spurious gos- 
pel which was called indiscrim- 
inately, "The gospel of the 
Nazarenes or Hebrews ;'** and 
which is supposed by some to 
be the gospel Pt. Paul refers to 
in Gal. i. 6. But many think 
that St.Paul only referred to the 
gospel which he preached, and 
that the gospel of the Naza- 
renes was a Hebrew or Syriac 
version of St. Matthew.f 



NECESSARIANS, or Ne- 
cessitarians; an appellation 
given to those who maintain, 
that moral agents act from ne- 
cessity. Some suppose this ne- 
cessity to be mechanical, and 
others moral. Mechanical ne- 
cessity follows materialism : 
moral necessity results from the 
presumption, that there is a 
power existing distinct from 
matter. Dr. Priestley's scheme 
of mechanical, or philosophical 
necessity, has been delineated 
under the article Materialists, 
on account of its connexion 
with the doctrine of Material- 
ism. 

The following is a sketch of 
the sentiments of some of the 
most celebrated advocates for 
moral necessity. 

Mr. Leibnitz, an eminent 
German philosopher, who was 
born in 1646, is a distinguish- 
ed writer on this subject. He 
attempted to give Calvinism & 
more pleasing and philosophical 
aspect. He considered all the 
w r orlds which compose the uni- 
verse as one system, whose 
greatest possible perfection is 
the ultimate end of creating 
goodness. As he laid down 
this great end as the supreme 
object of God's government, 



ences, vol iii. p. 217. Encyclopedia, vol. xii. p. 598. Hist, of Religion, vol. 
iv. article Mystics. Law's Life, p. 1. Law's Appeal, p. 4— 139.— Spirit of 
Prayer, p 61—68. Spirit of Love, p. 52.— Christian Regeneration, p. 1—39. 
Letters, &c. 

* Mosheim, vol i. p. 173. Broughton, vol. ii. p. 155. 

f Buck's Theolog. Diet. 



NEC 



192 



NEC 



and the scope to which all his 
dispensations were directed, he 
concluded that it must be ac- 
romplished : and hence the 
doctrine of necessity, to fulfil 
the purposes of predestination ; 
a necessity physical and me- 
chanical in the motions of ma- 
terial and inanimate things ; 
but moral and spiritual in the 
voluntary determinations of in- 
telligent beings, in consequence 
of propellent motives which 
produce their effects with cer- 
tainty, though those effects are 
contingent, and by no means 
the offspring of an absolute and 
blind fatality. 

Mr. Leibnite observes, that 
if it be said, that the world 
might have been without sin 
and misery, such a world would 
not have been the best ; for all 
tilings are linked together in 
each possible world. The uni- 
verse, whatever it may be, is 
all of a piece, like an ocean : 
the least motion produces its 
effect to any distance, though 
the effect becomes less sensible 
in proportion to the distance. 
God having settled every thing 
beforehand, having foreseen all 
good and evil actions, &c. every 
thing did ideally contribute be- 
fore Its existence to his creat- 
ing plan ; so that no alteration 
can be made in the universe, 
any more than in a number, 
without destroying its essence, 
or Its numerical individuality: 
and therefore, if the least evil 
which happens in the world 
Mere wanting, it would not be 
that world which, all things du- 



ly considered, the all-wise Cre- 
ator has chosen and accounted 
the best. Colours are height- 
ened by shadows, and a disso- 
nance well placed, renders har- 
mony more beautiful. Does 
any one sufficiently prize the 
happiness of health, who has 
never been sick ? I 4 * it not 
generally necessary, that a lit- 
tle evil should render a good 
more sensible, and consequent- 
ly greater ? 

President Edwards' scheme 
of moral necessity is as follows : 
That the will is in every case 
necessarily determined by the 
strongest motives, and that this 
moral necessity may be as ab- 
solute as natural necessity ; i. e. 
a moral effect may be as per- 
fectly connected with its mor- 
al cause, as a naturally neces- 
sary effect is with its natural 
catise. He rejects the notion 
of liberty, as implying any self- 
determining power in the will, 
any indifference or contingen- 
cy ; and defines liberty to be 
the power, opportunity, and ad- 
vantage, which any one has to 
do as he pleases. This liberty 
is supposed to be consistent 
with moral certainty, or neces- 
sity. He supports his scheme 
by the connexion between cause 
and effect, by God's certain 
foreknowledge of the volitions 
of moral agents, which Ls sup- 
posed to he inconsistent with 
such a contingency of those vo- 
litions as excludes all necessity. 
He shows that God's moral ex- 
cellence is necessary, yet vir- 
tuous and praise-worthy ; that 



NEC 



193 



NEC 



the acts of the will of the hu- 
man soul of Christ are necessa- 
rily holy, yet virtuous, praise- 
worthy, and rewardable ; and 
that the moral inability of sin- 
ners, consisting in depravity of 
heart, instead of excusing, con- 
stitutes their guilt. 

Lord Kaims has the follow- 
ing hypothesis : — That, com- 
paring together the moral and 
material world, every thing is 
as much the result of establish- 
ed laws in the one as in the 
other. There is nothing in the 
whole universe which can pro- 
perly be called contingent ; but 
every motion in the material, 
and every determination and 
action in the moral world, are 
directed by immutable laws : 
so that, while those laws re- 
main in force, not the smallest 
link in the chain of causes and 
effects tan be broken, nor any 
one thing be otherwise than it 
is. That, as man must act 
with consciousness and spon- 
taneity, it is necessary that he 
should have some sense of 
things possible and contingent. 
Hence the Deity has wisely im- 
planted a delusive sense of lib- 
erty in the mind of man, which 
fits him to fulfil the ends of 
action to better advantage than 
he could do, if he knew the ne- 
cessity which really attends him, 

Lord Kaims observes that, 
in the material world, it is found 
that the representations of ex- 
ternal objects and their quali- 
ties, conveyed by the senses, 
differ sometimes from what phi- 
losophy discovers these objects 

25 



and their qualities to be. Were 
men endowed with a micro- 
scopic eye, the bodies which 
surround him would appear as 
different, from what they do at 
present, as if he were transport- 
ed into another world. His 
ideas, upon that supposition, 
would be more agreeable to 
strict truth, but they would be 
far less serviceable in common 
life. Analogous to this in the 
moral world, the Deity has im- 
planted in mankind the delusive 
notion of the power of being in- 
different, that they may be led to 
the proper exercise of that activ- 
ity for which they were design- 
ed. 

The Baron de Montesquieu, 
in his Persian Letters, observes, 
that as God makes his crea- 
tures act just according to his 
own will, he knows every thing 
he thinks fit to know. But 
though it is in his power to see 
every thing, yet he does not 
always make use of that pow- 
er : he generally leaves his 
creatures at liberty to act or 
not to act, that they may have 
room to be guilty or innocent. 
In this view he renounces his 
right of acting upon his crea- 
tures, and directing their reso- 
lutions : but when he chooses to 
know any thing, he always does 
know it ; because he need only 
will that it shall happen as he 
sees it, and direct the resolu- 
tions of his creatures according 
to his will. Thus he fetches the 
things which shall happen, from 
among those which are merely 
possible, in fixing by his de- 



NEC 



194 



NEC 



crees the future determinations 
of the minds of his creatures, 
and depriving them of the pow- 
er of acting or not acting, 
which he has bestowed upon 
them. 

President Edwards makes 
the following distinction be- 
tween his and Lord Kaims' 
ideas of necessity : — (l) Lord 
Kaims supposes such a neces- 
sity with respect to men's ac- 
tions, a$ is inconsistent with 
liberty. Pres. Edwards thinks, 
that the moral necessity he de- 
fends is not inconsistent with 
the utmost liberty which can be 
conceived. (2.) Kaims sup- 
poses, that the terms unavoida- 
ble, impossible, &c. are equally 
applicable to the case of moral 
and natural necessity. Ed- 
wards maintains, that such a 
necessity, as attends the acts of 
the will, may with more pro- 
priety be called certainty, it be- 
ing no other than the certain 
connexion between the subject 
and predicate of the proposition 
which affirms their existence. — 
(3.) Kaims supposes, that if 
mankind could clearly see the 
real necessity of their actions, 
they would not appear to them- 
selves or others praise-worthy, 
culpable, or accountable for 
them. Edwards asserts, that 
moral necessity is perfectly Con- 
sistent with praise and blame, 
rewards and punishments. La 
ly, Lord Kaims agrees with 
President Edwards in suppos- 
ing that praise or blame rests 
ultimately on the disposition or 
frame of mind. 



As, in the account of Dr. 
Priestley's sentiments, the man- 
ner, in which he distinguishes 
philosophical necessity from the 
Calvinistic doctrine of predes- 
tination, is inserted ; perhaps 
those, who are fond of specu- 
lating on this subject, will be 
gratified by viewing, on the 
other hand, the following dis- 
crimination made by Dr. Em- 
mons, of Franklin, Mass. be- 
tween the Calvinistic idea of ne- 
cessity and Dr. Priestley's. 

It has long been a subject of 
controversy between Arminians 
and Calvinists, whether moral 
agents can act of necessity. 
Upon this subject, Dr. P. labours 
to prove the doctrine of ne- 
cessity from the general prin- 
ciple, that no effect can exist 
without a cause. « Every vo- 
lition (he argues) must be an 
effect, every effect must have a 
cause, every cause must neces- 
sarily produce its effect : there- 
fore every volition, as well as 
every other effect, must be ne- 
cessary." But though he agrees 
with the Calvinists in their first 
principles and general mode of 
reasoning, yet in one point he 
di Hers from them totally: for 
he thinks that motives, which 
are the cause of volitions, must 
operate mechanically, which, 
thej suppose, totally destroys 
the freedom of the will. He is 
constrained to maintain the me- 
chanical operation of motives, 
by his maintaining the materi- 
ality of the soul. " Everything 
(he says) belonging to the doc- 
trine of materialism is, in fact, 



NEC 



195 



NEG 



an argument for the doctrine of 
necessity ; and consequently 
the doctrine of necessity is a 
direct inference from materi- 
alism.* 

* Whether man is a necessa- 
ry or a free agent, is a ques- 
tion, that has been debated by 
writers of the first eminence. 
Hobbes, Collins, Hume, Leib- 
nitz, Kaims, Hartley, Priest- 
ley, Edwards, Crombie, Top- 
lady, and Belsham, have writ- 
ten on the side of Necessity : 
while Clarke, King, Law, Reid, 
Butler, Price, Bryant, Wollas- 
ton, Horsley, Beattie, Gregory, 
and Butterworth, have written 
against it. To state all their 
arguments in this place would 
take up too much room ; suffice 
it to say, that the Anti-necessa- 
rians suppose that the doctrine 
of Necessity charges God as 
the author of sin ; that it takes 
away the freedom of the will, 
renders man unaccountable, 
makes sin to be no evil, and 
morality or virtue no good ; 
precludes the use of means, and 
is of the most gloomy tendency. 
The Necessarians deny these 
to be legitimate consequences ; 
and observe, that the Deity acts 
no more immorally in decree- 
ing vicious actions, than in per- 
mitting those irregularities, he 
could so easily have prevented. 
The difficulty is the same on 
each hypothesis. All necessity, 
say they, does not take away 



freedom. The actions of a man 
may be, at one and the same 
time, free and necessary. It 
was infallibly certain, that Ju- 
das would betray Christ, yet 
he did it voluntarily. Jesus 
Christ necessarily became man 
and died ; yet he acted freely. 
That necessity does not render 
actions less morally good, is ev- 
ident ; for if necessary virtue 
be neither moral nor praise- 
worthy, it will follow that God 
himself is not a moral being, 
because a necessary one ; and 
the obedience of Christ cannot 
be good, because it was neces- 
sary. That it is not a gloomy 
doctrine they allege, because 
nothing can be more Consolato- 
ry than to believe that all things 
are under the direction of an 
all- wise Being ; that his king- 
dom ruleth over all, and that 
he doth all things well."f 

The texts of scripture refer- 
red to in favour of necessity are 
chiefly the following. Job xxiii. 
13, 14. — xxxiv. 29. Pro v. xvi. 
4. Isaiah xlv. 7. Matthew x. 29, 
30. — xviii. T. Luke xxiv. 16. 
John vi. ST. Acts xiii. 48. E- 
phesians i. 11. — 1 Thcss. ii. 12. 
&c. 

NEGROES, (The) natives 
of Africa, universally believe in 
a supreme Being, and have 
some ideas of a future state. 
They address the Almighty Be- 
ing by 2ifeticlie.0Y charm, which 
is considered as a subordinate, 



* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. v. p. 24. Leibnitz's Essay on the Goodness 
of God, the Free-will of Man, &c. Letters between Clarke and Leibnitz. Ed- 
wards on the Will, p. 17— 213. Kaims* Essays, p. 114—155— -Montesquieu's 
Persian Letters, p. 134—136. f Buck's Theological Diet. 



NEG 



196 



NEG 



mediatorial deity. They as- 
cribe evil in general, and ail 
their misfortunes to the devil, 
whom they so fear as to trem- 
ble at the mention of his name.* 

The word fetiche, in a strict 
sense, signifies whatever repre- 
sents their divinities ; but the 
precise ideas of the Negroes 
concerning their lesser gods, 
are not well adjusted by au- 
thors, or even among the most 

sensible of themselves. At 

Cape Coast, there is a public 
guardian fetiche, the highest in 
power and dignity. This is a 
peninsular rock, Which projects 
into the sea from the bottom of 
the cliff on which the castle is 
built, making a sort of covert 
for landing. Besides this superi- 
our fetiche, every separate can- 
ton, or district, has its peculiar 
fetiche, inferiourto that of Cape 
Coast. A mountain, a tree, a 
large rock, fish,or peculiar fowl, 
is raised to this high distinc- 
tion, and the honour of being 
the national divinity. Among 
trees the palm has the pre-em- 
inence, this being always deifi- 
ed ; and in particular that spe- 
cies of it called assoamun ; be- 
cause it is the most beautiful 
and numerous. They pay pro- 
found adoration to these feti- 
ches, and have grent, confidence 
in their power. Jjut the fVtirhc 
of one province is despised ill 
another. 

The fetiches of WWdah may 
be divided into three classes ; 
the J tall trees, and the 

sea. The serpent is the most 



celebrated, the others being sub- 
ordinate to the power of this 
deity. This snake has a large 
round head, beautiful piercing 
eyes, a short, pointed tongue, 
resembling a dart : its pace 
slow and solemn, except when 
it seizes on its prey, then very 
rapid ; its tail sharp and short, 
its skin of an elegant smooth- 
ness, adorned with beautiful col- 
ours, upon a light grey ground : 
it is amazingly familiar and 
tame. Rich offerings are made 
to this deity ; priests, and 
priestesses appointed for its ser- 
vice ; it is invoked in extreme- 
ly wet, dry, or barren seasons ; 
and, in a word, on all the great 
difficulties and occurrences of 
life. 

The ideas the Negroes enter- 
tain of a future state are vari- 
ous. Some maintain, that im- 
mediately upon the death of 
any person, he is removed into 
another world, where he as- 
sumes the very character in 
which he lived in this, and sup- 
ports himself by the offerings 
and sacrifices his friends make 
after his departure. It is said, 
that the great body of Negroes 
do not entertain any ideas of 
future rewards and punish- 
ments annexed to the good or 
evil actions of tliis life. A few, 
however, have some notion of a 
future state, which consists in 
being wafted away to a famous 
river, situated in a distant in- 
land country, called Bosman- 
que. Here their god interro- 
gates them concerning the lifo 



Midilleton's Geography, vol. i. p. 320. 



NEG 



197 



NEG 



they have led ; whether they 
have religiously kept the holy 
days dedicated to fetiche, ab- 
stained from all meats, and in- 
violably kept their oaths ? If 
they can answer truly in the 
affirmative, they are conveyed 
over the river to a land abound- 
ing in every luxury and human 
delight. If, on the contrary, 
the departed has sinned a- 
gainst any of the above capital 
points of their religion, then 
their god plunges him into a 
river, where he is buried in 
eternal oblivion. Others be- 
lieve in a kind of metempsy- 
chosis, where they shall be 
transported to the land of white 
men, altered to that complexion, 
and endowed with a soul simi- 
lar to theirs. But this is the 
doctrine only of those who think 
highly of the intellectual facul- 
ties of the white meric* 

The Negroes, who inhabit the 
kingdom of Benin, acknowledge 
a supreme Being, whom they 
call Orisa ; but think it need- 
less to worship him, because, 
being infinitely good, they are 
sure he will not hurt them. On 
the contrary, they are very 
careful in paying their devo- 
tions to the devil, whom they 
consider as the cause of all their 
calamities. They do not think 
of any other remedy for their 
most common diseases, but that 
of applying to a sorcerer to 
drive them away. Such of them 
as believe in the devil paint his 
image white.] 



The Negroes in Loango are 
said to acknowledge a supreme 
Deity, called Zambi, who is 
considered as the great cause of 
whatever is good and beautiful 
in the world. By his name they 
swear their most sacred oaths, 
the violation of which they think 
would be immediately followed 
with sickness. Him they love, 
but without worshipping him ; 
and reserve their worship for a 
malignant deity, (or devil) call- 
ed, Zambi-an-hi 9 whom they 
greatly fear, as is above stated. 
In order to appease him they 
abstain from some dish or oth- 
er, and in order to please him 
they spoil their fruit-trees.-— 
They think the soul survives 
the body, but have no distinct 
notions of its future residence 
and fate. 

The celebrated traveller, 
Mungo Park, has given the fol- 
lowing sketch of the religion of 
these pagans. 

" The belief of one God, and 
of a future state of rewards and 
punishments, is entire and uni- 
versal among the Africans. It 
is remarkable, however, that 
(except on the appearance of a 
new moon) the pagan natives 
do not think it necessary to of- 
fer up prayers and supplica- 
tions to the Almighty. They 
represent the Deity indeed as 
the creator and preserver of all 
things ; but, in general, they 
consider him as a being so re- 
mote, and of so exalted a na- 
ture, that it is idle to imagine the 



* Modem Universal History, vol. xvii. p. 133^137. 
t Kaims, vol. iv. p* 142. 



NEO 



198 



NEO 



feeble supplications of wretched 
mortals can reverse the de- 
crees, or change the purposes 
of unerring wisdom. If they 
be asked for what reason then 
do they offer up a prayer on the 
appearance of the new moon ? 
the answer is, that custom has 
made it necessary ; they do it, 
because their fathers did it be- 
fore them. The concerns of 
the world, they believe, are 
committed by the Almighty to 
the superintendance and direc- 
tion of subordinate spirits, over 
whom they suppose certain 
magical ceremonies have great 
influence. A white fowl, sus- 
pended from the branch of a 
particular tree, a snake's head, 
or a few handfuls of fruit, are 
offerings, which the Negroes 
often present, to deprecate the 
wrath, or to conciliate the fa- 
vour of these tutelary agents. 
But it is not often that they 
make their religious opinions 
the subject of conversation ; 
when interrogated in particu- 
lar concerning their idea of a 
future state, they express them- 
selves with great reverence ; 
but endeavour to shorten the dis- 
cussion, by observing that no 
man knows anv thing about it* 

NEONOMIANB, from m#< 
vcuu and vo^og lau\ i he advocate* 
of a new hnr. the condition 
whereof is impel -feet, though sin- 
ce re and persevering obedience. 

Neonomianism is supposed 
to be an essentia] part of the 
Arnunian system. " The new 



covenant of grace, which, 
through the medium of Christ's 
death, the Father made with 
men, consists, according to this 
system, not in our being justifi- 
ed by faith, as it apprehends 
the righteousness of Christ ; but 
in this, that God, abrogating 
the exaction of perfect legal 
obedience, imputes, or accepts 
of faith itself, and the imper- 
fect obedience of faith, instead 
of the perfect obedience of the 
law, and graciously accounts 
them worthy of the reward of 
eternal life." This opinion was 
condemned at the synod of 
Dort,f and has been canvassed 
between the Calvinists and Ar- 
minians on various occasions.^: 
Towards the end of the seven- 
teenth century, a controversy 
was agitated among the English 
dissenters j in which the one 
side, who were partial to the wri- 
tings of Dr. Crisp, were charg- 
ed with Sntinomianism ; and the 
other, who favoured those of Mr. 
Baxter, were accused of Neono- 
mianism. Dr. Daniel Williams, 
who was a principal writer in 
opposition to the former, gives 
the following as a summary of 
his faith in reference to these 
subjects : — " 1. God lias eter- 
nally elected i\ certain definite 
number of men, whom he will 
infallibly save. 2. These very 
elect are not personally justifi- 
ed, until they receive Christ, 
and yield up themselves to him ; 
but they remain condemned 
whilst unconverted. — 3. By the 



1 P fr 1 Travels, p. 509. t Acta Synodi, p. 253. 

Edwards on the Will, Lond. edit. p. 220. 



NEO 



199 



NEO 



ministry of the gospel there is 
a serious offer of pardon and 
glory, upon the terms of the 
gospel, to all that hear it : and 
God thereby requires them to 
comply. — 4. Ministers ought to 
use these and other gospel ben- 
efits as motives, assuring men 
that, if they believe they shall 
be justified ; if they repent, 
their « sins shall be blotted 
out :' but whilst they neglect 
these duties, they cannot have 
a personal interest in the ben- 
efits. — 5. It is by the power of 
the spirit of Christ freely ex- 
erted, and not by the power of 
free-will, that the gospel be- 
comes effectual for conversion. 
— 6. When a man believes, yet 
is not that faith, much less any 
other work, the matter of that 
righteousness for which a sin- 
ner is justified ; it is the im- 
puted righteousness of Christ 
alone, which gives the believer 
a right to these and all saving 
blessings. By both this and 
the fifth head, it appears, that 
all boasting is excluded, and we 
are saved by free grace. — 7. 
Faith alone receives the Lord 
Jesus and his righteousness ; 
and the subject of this faith is a 
convinced, penitent soul ; hence 
we are justified by faith alone, 
and yet the impenitent are not 
forgiven. — 8. God has freely 
promised, that all whom he pre- 
destinated to salvation shall not 
only savingly believe, but that 
he by his power will preserve 
them from a total, or a final 
apostasy. — 9. Yet the believer, 

* Gospel Truth stated, p. 312, 313. 



whilst he lives in this world, is 
to pass the time of his sojourn- 
ing here with fear, because his 
warfare is not accomplished ; 
and it is true, that if he « draw 
back,' God < will have no 
pleasure in him. 5 - — 10. The 
moral law is so in force still, 
that every precept constitutes 
duty, even to the believer ; eve- 
ry breach thereof is deserving 
of death. This law binds death 
by its curse on every unbeliever : 
and the righteousness, by which 
we are justified before God, is a 
righteousness adequate to that 
law, which is Christ's alone : 
and this is so imputed to the 
believer, as that God deals ju- 
dicially with him according 
thereto. — 11. Yet such is the 
grace of the gospel, that it prom- 
iseth in and by Christ, a free- 
dom from the curse, forgive- 
ness of sin, and eternal life, to 
every sincere believer ; which 
promise God will certainly 
perform, notwithstanding the 
threatening of the law."* 

Dr. Williams maintains the 
conditionally of the covenant 
of grace ; but admits with Dr. 
Owen, who also uses the term 
condition, that H Christ under- 
took, that those who were to be 
taken into this covenant should 
receive grace enabling them to 
comply with the terms of it, 
fulfil its conditions, and yield 
the obedience which God re- 
quired therein.f 

On this subject Dr. Williams 
further says, " The question is 
not whether the first, (viz. re- 

f Ibid. p. 70. 



NEO 



200 



NEO 



generating) grace, by which we 
are enabled To perform the con- 
dition, be absolutely given. 
This I affirm ; though that 
[grace] be dispensed ordinarily 
in a due use of means.* 

The following objection, a- 
mong others, was made by sev- 
eral ministers in 1692 against 
Dr. Williams' Work, above 
quoted : * To supply the room 
of the moral law, vacated by 
him, he turns the gospel into a 
new law, in keeping of which 
we shall be justified for the 
sake of Christ's righteousness ;f 
making qualifications and acts 
of ours a disposing subordinate 
righteousness, whereby we be- 
come capable of being justified 
by Christ's righteousness.^ 

To this he answers : * The 
difference, is not, (1.) Whether 
the gospel be a new law in the 
Socinian, Popish, or Arminian 
sense ? This I deny. Nor (2.) 
is faith, or any other grace or 
acts of ours, any atonement for 
Bin, satisfaction to justice, mer- 
iting qualification, or any part 
of that righteousness, for which 
we are justified at the bar 
of God ? This I deny in 
places innumerable. Nor (3.) 
whether the gospel be a law 
more new than is implied in 
the first i to fallen VI- 

am, proposed to Cain, and o- 
beyed by Abel, to the differen- 
cing him bom his unbelieving 
broth r? This I deny. (4.) Nop 
whether the gospel k 

that allmrs sin. when it accepts 
• « s as true, though 

• Gospel Truth stated, p. 61. \ 



short of perfection, to be the 
conditions of our personal inter- 
est in the benefits purchased by 
Christ? This I deny. (5.) Nor 
whether the gospel be a law, 
the promises whereof entitle 
the performers of its conditions 
to the benefits as of debt ? This 
I deny. 

* The difference is : — (1.) Is 
the gospel a law in this sense ? 
viz. God in Christ thereby com- 
mandeth sinners to repent of sin, 
and receive Christ by a true 
operative faith, promising that 
thereupon they shall be united 
to him, justified by his right- 
eousness, pardoned, and adopt- 
ed ; and that, persevering in 
faith and true holiness, they 
shall be finally saved ; also 
threatening, that if any shall 
die impenitent rejecters of his 
grace, they shall perish without 
relief, and endure sorer pun- 
ishments, than if these offers 
had not been made to them i 
(2.) Hath the gospel a sanch 
i. e. doth Christ therein enforce 
his commands of faith, repent- 
ance, and perseverance, by the 
foresaid promises and threaten- 
ings. as motives to our obedi- 

e ? Both these I affirm, and 
they deny ; saying, the gospel 
in Hie largest sense is an abso- 
lute promise, without precepts 
and Condition. (4.) Do the 

ipd pran neftts to 

. and its 
thai those benefits shall be with- 
held, and the contrary evils in- 

ted for the negled of - 
gnu ider those graces the 

Ibki p. 4-1—210. * Ibid. p. 54—: 



NEO 



£01 



NES 



condition of our personal title to 
those benefits ? This they de- 
ny, and I affirm, &c." # 

It does not appear to have 
been a question in this contro- 
versy, whether God commands 
sinners to repent and believe in 
Christ, nor whether he promis- 
es life to believers, and threatens 
death to unbelievers ; but whe- 
ther it be the gospel, under the 
form of a new law, that thus 
commands or threatens, or the 
moral law on its behalf; and 
whether its promises to believ- 
ing render such believing a con- 
dition of the things promised.— 
In another controversy, howev- 
er, about forty years afterwards, 
it became a question wheth- 
er God did by his word (call 
it law or gospel) command 
unregenerate sinners to repent 
and believe in C hirst, or to do a- 
ny thing else which is spiritually 
good. Of those who took the 
affirmative side of this question, 
some attempted to maintain it 
on the ground of the gospel's 
being a new law, consisting of 
commands, promises, and com- 
minations, the terms or condi- 
tions of which were repent- 
ance, faith, and sincere obe- 
dience. But those who first 
engaged in the controversy, 
though they allowed the encour- 
agement to repent and believe 
to arise merely from the grace 
of the gospel, yet considered the 
formal obligation to do so as 



arising from the moral law, 
which, requiring supreme love 
to God, requires acquiescence 
in any revelation which he shall 
at anv time make known. f 

XESTORIANS, a denomi- 
nation which arose in the fifth 
century, from Xestorius, bishop 
of Constantinople. They main- 
tain that the union of Christ's 
divinity with his humanity, is 
a union of will, operation, and 
benevolence; for the divine 
Word is perfect in his nature 
and person. The human na- 
ture, united to him is likewise 
perfect humanity in his nature 
and person ; neither of them is 
changed, or undergoes any al- 
teration. Therefore, there are 
two persons in Jesus Christ, and 
two natures, united by one 
operation and will. They con- 
ceived that, as there were two 
distinct natures in Christ, the 
divine and human, though both 
were uoited, as they express 
it, under one aspect, yet pro- 
perly, it was the human nature 
only which obeyed and suffer- 
ed, which was born and died. 
They therefore object to call- 
ing the virgin Mary the mother 
of God, so warmly contended 
for by the church of Rome; 
but which is equally objected 
to by prot'estants. 

In the Nestorian controver- 
sy, the contending parties seem 
to have been all of one opinion 
as to the doctrine of the trinity, 



* Gospel Trath, p. 256— 258. 

f Williams' Gospel Truth stated and vindicated. Chauncey's Neonomianism 
Unmasked. Maurice's Modern Question Affirmed and Proved. WitsiuV 
Irenicum, 



NEW 



205 



NEW 



in opposition to the Arians : 
and heid the co-equality of the 
three divine persons. The Nes- 
torians are a branch of the 
Greek Church, and reside chief- 
ly in Mesopotamia, Syria, and 
the Levant. Many also reside 
in India, where they are call- 
ed the Syrian Christians, which 
see.* 

*NETOVTSCHINS, a sect 
of Russian dissenters, said to 
be very ignorant, and much 
divided in opinion ; they go un- 
# der the general name of Spaso- 
va Soglasia, or the Union for 
Salvation. They believe that 
Antichrist is already come, (in 
the person of the pope perhaps,) 
and has put an end to every 
thing holy in the Church. f 

NEW Jerusalem Church, 
a society founded by Emanuel 
Swedenborg, son of Jasper, a 
Lutheran bishop of West-Goth- 
ia. He was born at Stockholm 
in the year 1689, and died in 
London in 1772. He early en- 
joyed all the advantages of a 
liberal education, having studi- 
ed with great attention in the 
academy of Upsal, and in the 
universities of England, Hol- 
land, Franco, and Germany. 
His progress in the sciences 
was rapid and extensive ; and 
at an early period in life lie dis- 
tinguished himself by various 
publications in Latin on pliilo- 
phical subjects. His studies 
led him to refer natural phe- 
nomnia to spiritual agency, and 



to suppose that there is a close 
connexion between the two 
worlds of matter and spirit 
Hence his system teaches us to 
consider all the visible universe, 
with every thing that it con- 
tains, as a theatre and repre- 
sentation of the invisible world, 
from which it first derived its 
existence, and by connexion 
with which it continually sub- 
sists. 

Swedenborg's great genius 
and learning, accompanied with 
the purity of his character, at- 
tracted the public notice. Hence 
he received various literary and 
political honours. All these, 
however, lie considered of small 
importance, compared with the 
distinguished privilege of hav- 
ing, as he declared, his spirit- 
ual sight opened, to converse 
with spirits and angels in the 
spiritual world. He first be- 
gan to receive his revelations in 
London. He asserts that on a 
certain night, a man appeared 
to him in the midst of a strong 
shining light, and said, « I am 
God the Lord, the Creator, and 
Redeemer ; I have chosen thee 
to explain to men the interiour 
and spiritual sense of the sacred 
writings. I will dictate to thee 
what thou oughtest to write." 
He affirms that after this peri- 
od, bis spiritual sight was so 
opened, Unit he could see in the 
most clear and distinct manner, 
what passed in the spiritual 
world, and converse with an- 



• V History of Early Opinions, vol. i\. p. 252. Jortin's Remarks 

on EeHes Hist. v©l. iv. p 278. Mosheim, vol. ii. p. 70, 71. new edition. 
| Pinkcrtoirs Greek Church, p. 3 



NEW 



203 



NEW 



gels and spirits in the same 
manner as with men. Accord- 
ingly, in his treatise concern- 
ing heaven and hell, he relates 
the wonders w r hich he saw in 
the invisible worlds ; and gives 
an account of various, and here- 
tofore unknown particulars, re- 
lating to the peace, the happi- 
ness, the light, the order of 
heaven $ together with the forms, 
the functions, the habitations, 
and even the garments of the 
heavenly inhabitants. He re- 
lates his conversation with an- 
gels, and describes the condi- 
tion of Jews, Gentiles, Mahom- 
etans, and Christians of eve- 
ry denomination, in the other 
world. 

Swedenborg called the prin- 
ciples which he delivered, " The 
Heavenly Doctrines of the New 
Jerusalem ?' for, according to 
his system, the New Jerusa- 
lem signifies the new church 
upon earth, which is now about 
to be established by the Lord, 
and which is particularly de- 
scribed, as to its glory and ex- 
cellency, in Rev. xxi. and ma- 
ny other parts of the sacred 
word. The holy city, or New 
Jerusalem, he interprets as de- 
scriptive of a new dispensation 
of heavenly truth, breaking 
through, and dissipating the 
darkness, which at this day pre- 
vails on the earth. 

The following extract con- 

* Correspondence, in a philosophical sense, is a kind of ] analogy that one 
thing bears to another, or the relation subsisting* be tween the essence of a 
thing" and its form, or between the cause and its effect ; thus the whole nat- 
ural world corresponds to the spiritual world ; the body of a man with all its 
parts, corresponds to his soul, and the literal sense of the word corres- 
ponds to the spiritual. 



tains the general outlines of Swe- 
denborg's theological system. — 
1. That the sacred scripture 
contains three distinct senses, 
called celestial, spiritual, and 
natural; and that in each sense 
it is divine truth, accommodat- 
ed respectively to the angels 
of the three heavens, and also 
to men on earth. — 2. That there 
is a correspondence or analo- 
gy between all things in hea- 
ven and all things in man ; and 
that this science of correspon- 
dence is a key to the spiritual 
or internal sense of the sacred 
scriptures, every page of which 
is written by correspondences; 
that is, by such things in the 
natural world as correspond 
unto, and signify things in the 
spiritual world.* — 3. That there 
is a divine trinity of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, or in oth- 
er words, of the all-begetting 
divinity, \&voinum a quo,'] the 
divine human, and the divine 
proceeding, or operation; but 
that this trinity consisteth not 
of three distinct persons, but 
is united as body, soul, and ope- 
ration in man, in the one per- 
son of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
who therefore is the God of hea« 
ven, and alone to be worship- 
ped; being Creator from eter- 
nity, Redeemer in time, and 
Regenerator to eternity. — 4. 
That redemption consisteth not 
in the vicarious sacrifice of the 



NEW 



204 



NEW 



Redeemer, and an atonement 
to appease the divine wrath; 
but in a real subjugation of the 
powers of darkness; in a res- 
toration of order in the spiritual 
world; in checking the over- 
grown influences of wicked 
spirits on the souls of men, and 
opening a nearer and clearer 
communication with the hea- 
venly and angelic powers; in 
making salvation, which is re- 
generation, possible for all who 
believe on the incarnate God 
and keep his commandments. 
— 5. That there is an univer- 
sal influx from God into the 
souls of men. The soul, upon 
receiving this influx from God, 
transmits it through the per- 
ceptive faculties of the mind to 
the body. The Lord with all 
his divine wisdom, consequent- 
ly with all the essence of faith 
and charity, enters by influx 
into every man, but is received 
by every man according to his 
state and form. Hence it is 
that good influxes from God 
are changed by the evil nature 
of their recipients into their 
Opposite?; good into evil, and 
truth into falsehood. — 6. That 
we are placed in this world, 
subject to the influences of two 
most opposite principles, of 
good from the Lord and his 
holy angels, of evil from hell or 
evil spirits. While we live in 
this world our spirits ha\ e their 
abode in the spiritual world. 
where we are kepi in a kind of 
spiritual equilibrium by the 
continual action of those con- 
trary powers; in consequence 



of which we are at perfect lib- 
erty to turn to either as we 
please ; that without this free- 
will in spiritual things, regene- 
ration cannot be effected. If 
we submit to God, we receive 
real life from him; if not, we 
receive that life from hell which 
is called in scripture spiritual 
death. — 7. That heaven and 
hell are not arbitrary appoint- 
ments of God. Heaven is a 
state arising from the good af- 
fections of the heart, and a cor- 
respondence of the words and 
actions, grounded on sincere 
love to God and man: and 
hell is the necessary conse- 
quence of an evil and thought- 
less life, enslaved by the vile 
affections of self-love, and the 
love of the world, without being 
brought under the regulations 
of heavenly love, by a right 
submission of the will, the un- 
derstanding, and actions, to the 
truth and spirit of heaven. — 8. 
That there is an intermediate 
state for departed souls, which 
is called the world of spirits ; 
and that very few r pass directly 
to either heaven or hell. This 
is a state of purification to the 
good ; but to bad spirits it is a 
slate of separation of all the 
extraneous good from the radi- 
cal evil which constitutes the 
essence of their natures. — 9. 
That throughout heaven, such 
as ait of like dispositions and 
qualities are consociated into 
particular fellowships, andsuch 
as differ in these respects are 
separated ; so that every soci- 
ety in heaven consists of simi- 



NEW 



205 



NEW 



lar members. — 10. That man 
immediately on his decease ri- 
ses again in a spiritual body, 
which was inclosed in his ma- 
terial body ; and that in this 
spiritual body he lives as a 
man to eternity, either in heav- 
en or in hell, according to the 
quality of his past life. — 11. 
That those passages in the sa- 
cred scripture, generally sup- 
posed to signify the destruction 
of the world by fire, &c. com- 
monly called the last judgment, 
must be understood, according 
to the abovementioned science 
of correspondences, which 
teaches, that by the end of the 
world, (or consummation of the 
age,) is not signified the des- 
truction of the material world, 
but the end, or consummation, 
of the present christian church, 
both among Roman Catholics 
and Protestants of every des- 
cription* and denomination : 
that this consummation, which 
consists in the total falsification 
of the divine truth, and adul- 
teration of the divine good of 
the word, has actually taken 



place ; and, together with the 
establishment of a new church 
in place of the former, is de- 
scribed in the Revelations, in 
the internal sense of that book, 
in which the new church is 
meant, as to its internals, by 
the new earth ; also by the 
New Jerusalem descending from 
God out of heaven.] 

It is a leading doctrine of 
Swedenborg in his explanation 
of the other books of scripture, 
that one of the principal uses 
for which the word is given, is, 
that it might be a medium of 
communication between the 
Lord and man ; also that earth 
might be thereby conjoined 
with heaven, or human minds 
with angelic minds ; which is 
effected by the correspondences 
of natural things with spiri- 
tual, according to which the 
word is written ; and that in 
order to its being divine, it 
could not be written otherwise : 
that hence, in many parts of the 
letter, the word is clothed with 
the appearances of truths ac- 
commodated to the apprehen- 



* An ingenious author, who has embraced the doctrines of the New Jerusa- 
lem church, thus explains this subject : " It may be expedient to observe that 
there is a last judgment •, both particular and general, as it relates to an individ- 
ual of the church, or to the church itself collectively considered. The last 
judgment, as it relates to an individual, takes place with every one when he 
dies; for then hepasseth into another state of existence, in which, when he 
cometh into the full exercise of the life which he had procured to himself in 
the body, he is judged either to death or to life ; i. e. to hello? to heaven. The 
last judgment, as it relates to the church collectively considered, takes place 
when there is no longer any genuine love and faith in it, whereby it ceaseth to 
be a church. See Notes on Swedenborg's Doctrine concerning the Lord, bv 
Mr. Hill. J 

f The Rev. Mr Hargrave, minister of the New Jerusalem Church in Balti- 
more, observes, that the end of the world signifies the end of the churches, both 
as to life and doctrines ; and the last judgment means an examination and 
condemnation of all those false principles which have brought the church to 
an end. See his Sermon preached at Philadelphia in 1802. 



NEW 



206 



NEW 



sions of the simple and un- 
learned ; as, when evil passions 
are attributed to the Lord, and 
where it is said that he With* 
holdeth his mercy from man, 
forsakes him, casts into heli, 
doeth evil, &c. : whereas such 
things do not at all belong to 
the Lord ; but they are said in 
the same manner as we speak of 
the sun's rising and setting, 
and other natural phenomena, 
according to the appearance of 
things, or as they appear to the 
outward senses. To the taking 
up such appearances of truth 
from the letter of scripture, and 
making this or that point of 
faith derived from them the es- 
sential of the church, instead of 
explaining them by doctrines 
drawn from the genuine truths, 
which in other parts of the 
word are left naked, Sweden- 
borg ascribes the various dis- 
sensions and heresies that have 
arisen in the church. These 
he says, could not be prevented 
consistently with the preserva- 
tion of man's free agency, both 
with respect to the exertion of 
his w 'ill, and of his understand- 
ing. But yet, he observes, every 
one* in whatever heresy he may 
be with respect to the under- 
standing* may still be reformed 
and saved, provided he shuns 
exits as sins, and does not con- 
firm heretical lalscs in himself; 
for by shunning evils as sins the 
will is reformed; and by 1he, 
will the understanding, which 
then first emerges out of dark- 
ness into light I that the word, 
in its lowest ade 



the medium of salvation to those 
who are obedient to its pre- 
cepts ; while this sense serves 
to guard its internal sanctities 
from being violated by the 
wicked and profane, and is rep- 
resented by the cherubim plac- 
ed at the gates of Eden, and 
the flaming sword turning eve- 
ry way to guard the tree of 
life. 

His doctrine respecting dif- 
ferences of opinion in the church 
is summed up in these words : 
" There are three essentials of 
the church ; an acknowledg- 
ment of the Lord's divinity, an 
acknowledgment of the holi- 
ness of the word, and the life 
which is charity. Conformable 
to his life i. e. to his charity, is 
every man's real faith. From 
the word he hath the knowl- 
edge of what his life ought to 
be, and from the Lord he hath 
reformation and salvation. If 
these three had been held as 
essentials of the church, intel- 
lectual dissensions would not 
have divided it, but would only 
have varied it as the light va- 
rieth colours in beautiful ob- 
jects, and as various jewels con- 
stitute the beauty of a kingly 
(Town." 

The moral doctrines of the 
New Jerusalem church are 
comprised under general heads, 
collected from Swedenborg's 
writings, and prefixed to some 
proposals published in England 
for the organization and estab- 
lishment of a society. Under 
those general heads it is pro- 
posed to promote marriages on 



NEW 



207 



NIC 



rope. They are also to be 
found in many of the countries 
of the East. In most of the 
United States, there are many 
readers, and some receivers of 
the doctrines, particularly in 
the cities of Baltimore, Phil- 
adelphia, and New York. 
Churches have been erected in 
Baltimore and Philadelphia, 
and meetings of the receivers 
of the doctrines are held in 
many places. They have three 
places of worship in London ; 
and likewise several chapels in 
other parts of the country. 
They use a liturgy formed on 
the model of that of the church 
of England, and as similar as 
the difference of doctrines will 
admit. Some of the ministers 
of the establishment are con- 
verts to Swedenborg's testimo- 
ny.* 

NEW PLATONICS : See 
Jlmmonians. 

NICOLAITANS, a sect that 
arose in the first century, and 
boasts its origin from Nicolas, 
one of the seven first deacons 
of Jerusalem, but is very severe- 
ly censured by the Lord Jesus 
Christ himself, in the book of 
Revelation, chap. ii. 6. «f The 
deeds of the Nicolaitans which 
I hate/ 5 By this expression it 
should seem that their heresy 
was rather practical than theo- 

* Summary View of Swedenborg's Doctrines, p. 12—90. Swedenborg on 
the New Jerusalem, p. 28—34. On the Lord, p. 88. On Influx, p. 28, 29. On 
Heaven and Hell, p. 2 — 5. On the Doctrine of Life, p. 116. On Divine Prov- 
idence, Note 259. Arcana Ccclestia, p. 47, 48. Apocalypse Revealed, 
vol. i. p. 37. Aphorisms of Wisdom, p. 52 — 54. Hindmarsh's Defence of 
the New Church, p. 281—362. Dialogues on Swedenborg's Theological Writ* 
ings, p. 11 — 37. See also Dr. Priestley's Letters to the New Jerusalem Church 
in Birmingham. The Christian Observer for June 18Q6. Barruel's Hist, of 
Jacobinism, vol. iv. 



the principles of the new 
church; which are, that true 
conjugal love consists in the 
most perfect and intimate union 
of minds, which constitutes one 
life, as the will and understand- 
ing are united in one ; that this 
love exists only with those who 
are in a state of regeneration ; 
that after the decease of conju- 
gal partners of this description 
they meet, and all the mere 
natural loves being separated, 
the mental union is perfected, 
and they are exalted into the 
wisdom and happiness of the 
angelic life. 

Swedenborg founded his doc- 
trines on the spiritual sense of 
the word of God, which he de- 
clared was revealed to him im- 
mediately from the Lord out of 
heaven. As his language is 
peculiar, his reasoning cannot 
be abridged so as to be render- 
ed intelligible to the generality 
of readers. Those who are 
desirous of farther information 
are referred to the authorities 
cited below. 

The receivers of the doc- 
trines of the New Jerusalem 
church are numerous in Eng- 
land, and in some parts of Ger- 
many. There are also a con- 
siderable number of them in 
Sweden, Russia, and France, 
and in all the countries of Eu- 



"NON 



208 



NON 



rctical ; and they stand charg- 
ed in history with sensuality 
and profaneness : particularly, 
with allowing a community of 
wives. Whether Nicolas him- 
self countenanced such conduct, 
or whether they ahused his 
name to sanction it, is not now 
easily to he ascertained; but 
the latter seems very proba- 
ble. The Nicolaitans of the 
second century were Gnostics ; 
but there seems some doubt 
whether they were the same 
sect.* 

NOETIANS, a denomina- 
tion in the third century, the 
followers of Noetius, who af- 
firmed that the supreme God, 
whom he called the Father, and 
considered as absolutely indi- 
visible, united himself to the 
man Christ, whom he called 
the Son, and was born and cru- 
cified with him. See Patripas- 
sidiii ■{■ 

♦NOMINALISTS, a party 
of the schoolmen, who follow- 
ed the doctrine of Aristotle, 
with respect to universal ideas, 
in opposition to the Realists, 
which see. 

NON-CONFORMISTS,dis- 
senters from the church of Eng- 
land : but the term applies more 
particularly to those ministers 
who were ejected from their 
livings hy the act of uniformi- 
ty in 1662: the number of whom 
was nearly 2000. These men 
were driven from their houses, 



from the society of their friends, 
and exposed to the greatest dif- 
ficulties. Their troubles were 
greatly augmented by the con- 
venticle act, whereby they were 
prohibited from meeting for 
any exercise of religion (above 
five in number) in any other 
manner than allowed by the lic- 
urgy and practice of tiie church 
of England. For the first of- 
fence the penalty was three 
month's imprisonment, or pay- 
ing five pounds ; for the second 
offence six month's imprison- 
ment, or ten pounds j and for 
the third offence, to be banish- 
ed to some of the American 
plantations, for seven years, or 
pay one hundred pounds; and 
in case they return, to suffer 
death without benefit of clergy. 
For a detailed account of the 
sufferings of the Nonconform- 
ists at this period the reader 
is referred to Neal's Historv 
of the Puritans, and Brooks* 
Lives of the Puritans. 

For the the grounds of Non- 
conformity, see Dissenters and 
Furitans.]. 

*2f ONJURORS,the remains 
of the ancient episcopal church 
of Scotland, who at the revolu- 
tion of 1688 adhered to the ban- 
ished family of the Stuarts, and 
refused to take the oaths of al- 
legiance to king William. But 
at the death of the last pretend- 
er in 1788, the denomination 
became extinct, and the laws 



Dupin'i Church Hist. vol. i. p. 3fc MToaheim, vol. i. p. 143, 144. New Ed: 
| Ifothi im, vol i. p 216, 247. Brooghton, vol. it. p. 172. 
t B r*5 Nonconformists' Memorial, preface, p. vi. vii. Buck's The. 

Diet. 



(EC 



£09 



CEC 



against them have been since 
repealed. The episcopal church 
of Scotland is now considered 
as a branch of that of England, 
and is governed by eight bish- 
ops, one of whom is styled Pri- 
mate.* 

NOVATIANS, a denomina- 
tion in the third century, who 
derive their name from their 
founders, Novat and Novatian ; 
the first a priest of the church 
of Cartilage, the other of that 
of Rome. 

This denomination laid it 
down for a fundamental tenet, 
that the church of Christ ought 
to be free from every stain ; 
and taught, that he, who had 
once fallen into any moral of- 
fence, could not again become 
a member of it, though they 
did not refuse him the hopes of 
eternal life. Hence they looked 
upon every society which re- 
admitted those to their com- 
munion who, after baptism had 
fallen into heinous crimes, as 
unworthy the title of a chris- 
tian church. They separated 
from the church of Rome, be- 



cause she admitted to coramun r 
ion those who had fallen off in 
time of persecution, to which 
they objected from tleb. vi. 1 — 
8. They likewise obliged such 
as came over to them from the 
general body of christians to 
submit to baptism a second 
time, as a necessary prepara- 
tion for entering into their so- 
ciety. 

This denomination also con- 
demned second marriages, and 
denied communion forever to 
such as practised them. They 
assumed to themselves (as is 
pretended) the title of Cathari, 
or puritans.f 

*NOVOJENTZI, a party of 
the "old believers" among 
the Russian dissenters, or Ras- 
koliniks, who recommended ' 
marriage very strongly, in op- 
position to those who prefer 
celibacy4 

*NUNS, religious womeu 
in the primitive and Roman 
church, who devote themselves, 
under a solemn vow, to celib- 
acy and a recluse life. See 
Monks. 



o 



^(Economists, a par- 
ty of French philosophers, who 
ingratiated themselves both 



with the king (Louis XV) and 
the people, under pretence of 
promoting (economy in the 



* Skinner's Eccles. of Scotland — Primitive truths and order vindicated — 
Adam's Religious World displayed, vol. ii. p. 399, &c. and Evans' Sketch, 13th 
ed. p. 158. 

f Formey's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 61. Mosheim's Eccles, Hist. vol. i. p. 
250, 251. Hist, of Religion, vol. iv. Broughton's Hist. Lib. vol. ii, p. lTu 
°inkerton 5 s Greek Church, p. 333* 

27 



OllA 



210 



ORI 



state, while their main object, 
according to the Abbe Barruel, 
was to subvert Christianity, by 
circulating the writings of Vol- 
taire, Diderot, and other inii- 
dels. 

OPHIANS, Ophites, or 
Serpentakiaxs, seems to be 
the name of several sects, so 
called from their reverence, and 
in many cases worship, of the 
serpent. Mr. Bryant thinks 
this almost universally prevail- 
ed in the heathen world, and 
names many countries which a- 
dopted it, particularly Egypt.* 
The cause seems to have had its 
origin in the opinion, that the 
serpent was " more subtle than 
any other beast of the field." 
It is not difficult to account, 
therefore, for the serpent's be- 
ing an early emblem of wis- 
dom. 

There were also Ophites who 
were a sort of mongrel chris- 
tians, and perhaps revered the 
serpent as a type of Christ,f as 
the brazen serpent is still con- 
sidered. (John iii. 14, 16.) The 
Ophites are considered by many 
authors, as a kind of Gnostics. 
*ORATORY, priests of the. 
There were two religious con- 
gregations which assumed this 
name; the one founded in Ita- 
ly by Philip de Ncri in 1548; 
who also founded an hospital 
for pilgrims to Rome so large 
that in the year 1600, it lodged 
successively 470,000 persons. 
The other, called " the oratory 
of Jesus," was founded in 

* Hoi well's Mythology. Diet. p. 303. 
^ Scotch TUeolog. Diet. 



France, and its chief object was 
" neither learning nor theolo- 
gy ;" — but to cultivate " the 
virtues of the ecclesiastical 
life.''t 

ORIENTAL PHILOSO- 
PHY. The oriental philoso- 
phers endeavoured to explain 
the nature and origin of all 
things, by the principle of em- 
anation from an eternal foun- 
tain of being. The formation 
of this philosophy into a regu- 
lar system has been attributed 
to Zoroaster, an ancient Persian 
philosopher, who adopted the 
principle, generally held by the 
ancients, that " from nothing 
nothing can be produced." He 
supposed spirit and matter, 
light and darkness, to be eman- 
ations from one eternal source. 
The active and passive prin- 
ciples he conceived to be per- 
petually at variance ; the for- 
mer tending to produce good, 
the latter, evil: but that through 
the intervention of the supreme 
Being the contest would at last 
terminate in favour of the good 
principle. According to Zo- 
roaster, various orders of spir- 
itual beings, gods, or demons, 
have proceeded from the Deity, 
which are more or less perfect, 
as they are at a greater or less 
distance, in the course of eman- 
ation, from the eternal foun- 
tain of intelligence ; among 
those, the human soul is a par- 
ticle of divine light, which will 
return to its source and partake 
of its immortality : and matter 

+ Lardncr's Heretics, p. 352 



ORI 



£11 



ORI 



i3 the last, or most distant em- 
anation from tite first source of 
being, which, on account of its 
distance from the fountain of 
light, becomes opaque and in- 
ert, and whilst it remains in 
that state is the cause of evil : 
but, being gradually refined, it 
will at last return to the foun- 
tain from whence it flowed.* 

ORIGENISTS, a denomi- 
nation in the third century, who 
derived their opinions from 
Origen, a very learned presby- 
ter of Alexandria, and a man 
of uncommon abilities, who in- 
terpreted the divine truths of 
religion according to the tenour 
of the Platonic philosophy. He 
pretended that many evils arise 
from adhering to the literal and 
external part of scripture ; and 
that the true meaning of the 
sacred writers was to be sought 
in a mysterious and hidden 
sense. 

The peculiar tenets ascribed 
to Origen, are the following : 

I. A pre-existent state of hu- 
man souls, prior to the Mosaic 
creation, and perhaps from e- 
ternity ; which souls were cloth- 
ed with ethereal bodies suited 
to their original dignity. See 
Platonists. 

II. That souls were con- 
demned to animc-te mortal bod- 
ies, in order to expiate faults 
they had committed in a pre- 
existent state; for no other 
supposition appeared to him 
sufficient to account for their 
residence in these gross mate- 
rial bodies. See John ix. 2, 3. 

* Enfield. 



III. That the soul of Christ 
was created before the begin- 
ning of the world, and united 
to the divine word in a state of 
pristine glory. See Phil. ii. 5 — 7. 
This text, he thought, must 
be understood of Christ's hu- 
man soul, because it is unusual 
to propound the Deity as an 
example of humility in scrip- 
ture. Though the humanity 
of Christ was so God-like, he 
emptied himself of this fulness 
of life and glory, to take upon 
him the form of a servant. It 
was .this Messiah, who convers- 
ed with the patriarchs under a 
human form : it was he, who 
appeared to Moses upon the 
holy mount : it was he, who 
spoke to the prophets under a 
visible appearance : and it is 
he, who will at last come in tri- 
umph upon the clouds, to res- 
tore the universe to its primi- 
tive splendour and felicity. See 
Pre-eocistents. 

IV. That at the resurrection 
mankind will be again clothed . 
with ethereal bodies. For the 
elements of our terrestrial com- 
position are such as most fa- 
tally entangle us in vice, pas- 
sion, and misery. The purer 
the vehicle the soul is united 
with, the more perfect is her 
life and operations. Besides, 
the supreme goodness, who 
made all things, assures us, he 
made all things good at first ; 
and therefore his recovery of 
us to our lost happiness (which 
is the design of the gospel) 
must restore us to far better 



OKI 






OSS 



bodies and happier habitations; 
which is evident from 1 Cor. 
xv. 40. 2 L\n*. v. 1. and other 
tex T - ipture. 

V. 1 hat after long periods of 
time, the damned snail be re- 
leased from their torments, and 
restored to a new state of 
probation. For the Deity has 
such reserves in his gracious 
providence, as will vindicate 
his sovereign goodness and 
lom from all disparage- 
ment. Though sin has extin- 
bed, i r -liuiced the divine 
life, yet it has not destroyed the 
faculties of reason and under- 
standing, consideration and 
memory, which will serve the 
life which is most powerful. If, 
therefore, the vigorous attrac- 
tion of the sensual nature be 
abated by a ceaseless pain, l! 
powers may resume the seeds 
of a better life and nature. As 
in the material system there is 
a gravitation of the less bo 
towards the gr< 

of); be something anal- 

•is to tins in the intellectual 

oir- 
from God, 
and 

i it- 

not but 

im, m the s men 

ncy towards him- 

origin- 

VI. r its 



conflagration shall become hab- 
itable again, and be the man- 
sion of men and other animals, 
and that in eternal vicissitudes. 
Heb. i. 10 — 12, where speaking 
both of the heavens and earth, 
the inspired writer says, " as a 
ire shalt thou change them, 
and they shall be changed," 
&c. The fashion of the world 
passes awa y like a turning scene, 
to exhibit a fresh and new rep- 
resentation of things ; and if 
only the present dress and ap- 
pearance of things go off, the 
substance is supposed to remain 
entire.* See ^lillenarians. 

Origen is also charged with 
Arianism. See Arums. 

^ORTHODOX, sound in 
the faith ; a term generally ap- 
plied by the bed church 
in every age and country to its 
own creed ; and denied to all 
doctrinal dissenters from it. 

OS LAN BRIANS, a denom- 
ination among t\\Q Lutl 
founded in 15^0. by Ami 

celebral nan 

divine, of high CaMnistic prin- 
ciples, similar to Crisp, Hus- 
. and others, charged with 
lingtoAntin hl One 

of h be- 

lief 

d no 
sin in • em- 

f es. 



\ Intellectual 
n, vol. ii p. H\ t cal Principles of Religion, p. 47— 

84. 

. 10. 



PAG 



213 



PAG 



*PAGANS, heathens, and 
particularly those who worship 
idols. The term came into 
use afte the establishment of 
Christianity ; the cities and 
great towns affording the first 
converts, the heathens were 
called Pagans, (from Pagus, a 
Village,) because they were 
then found chiefly in remote 
country places ; but we use the 
term commonly for all who do 
not receive the Jewish, Chris- 
tian, or Mahometan religions. 
The Pagans may be divided in- 
to the following classes — 

I. The Greeks and Romans, 
and others who admit their re- 
fined system of mythology. 

II. The more ancient na- 
tions, as the Chaldeans, Phe- 
iricians, Sabians, &c. 

III. The Chinese, Hindoos, 
Japanese. &c. 

IV. The Barbarians, as the 
Indians of North and South 
America, and the Negroes of 
Africa. 

The objects of worship a- 
mong the Pagans are various 
and diverse, as 1. The heaven- 
ly bodies, and particularly the 
Sun and Moon. 2. Imaginary 
beings. as Demons. Genii. &c. 
3. The spirits of departed prin- 
ces, heroes, and philosophers : 
or. lastly, almost every object 
of the animate and inanimate 
creation. The more refined, 
indeed considered animals or 



images as only the repn 
tions of their gods, who were 
supposed to reside in them ; or 
as the medium of their worship. 
But the vulgar, the multitude, 
looked no farther than the ma- 
terial images : *\ and it must be 
remarked, that however high 
they might look, if not to the 
great Supreme, they were e- 
qually idolaters, whether they 
w orshipped the sun, or Apollo, 
or a departed gkost ; or an ox, 
a tree, or a stone." 

The rites of Paganism were 
as various as theobjects of their 
worship. In genera! they had 
some idea of tk? necessity of 
an atonement for their sins, and 
that •• without shedding of blood 
there is no rem i- ' in ma- 

ny cases, and on all emergen- 
cies, they wei hensive 
that the sacrifice must be of 
equal dignity with the sinner ; 
and hence among many nations 
both ancient and modern, from 
the worshipper of Moloch, to 
the South-sea Islanders, the 
practice (sometimes carried to 
great enormity) of human sa- 
crifices, which have stained the 
altars of almost all the nations 
upon the earth. * 

The peculiarities of many 
nations have been already no- 
ticed in these pages, and others 
are to follow. See the articles 
Celts. Chinese. Druids, Guars, 
Grecians, Egyptians, Hindoos, 



* Adam's Relic\o^ Wettd fispta <Hi-~?till:ngfleet's Or^'nal Sacrx. 



PAS 



214 



PAT 



Japanese, Indians, Magians, 
Negroes, Sabians, Samans, or 
Schamans, &c. &c. 

^PANTHEISTS, a sort of 
philosophical atheists, who con- 
sidered the universe as an im- 
mense animal, " whose body 
nature is, and God the soul." 
This was the system of Orphe- 
us and other early Greeks, and 
seems to have been the original 
of the doctrine of two co-eternal 
principles in the Oriental Phi- 
losophy, which see. From this, 
sprung the opinions of the Gnos- 
tics and Maoicheans, and in 
modern times, of Spinosa and 
Tho. Hobbes.* See Spinosists. 

PAPISTS, those who receive 
the Pope (Pana) of Rome as 
the head of their church. See 
Roman Catholics. 

PARMEMANITES. See 
Donatists. 

PASAGINIANS, adenomi- 
tion which arose in the twelfth 
century, called also The Cir- 
cumcised. Their distinguishing 
tenets were 1. That the ob- 
servation of tie law of Moses, 
in every thine, except the of- 
fering of sacrifices, was obli- 
gatory upon ch 'ist ians. 2. That 
Christ was no more than the 
first and purest creature of God, 
which was the doctrine of the 
scmi-arians. They had the ut- 
most avefsion-to the church of 
Rome.] 

PASSALORYNCHITES.a 
branch of tho Montanists, who 
held, that, in order to he saved, 
it was necessary to observe a 



perpetual silence ; wherefore 
they are said (no doubt in ridi- 
cule) to have kept their finger 
constantly upon their mouth, 
and dared not open it even to 
say their prayers : and from 
this circumstance arose the 
name of this denomination. 

^PATRIARCHAL RELI- 
GION, (The) was natural reli- 
gion in its first and purest state 
after the fall : but it was not 
natural religion only ; since we 
know that to the ancient patri- 
archs were made many divine 
revelations by the prophets, as 
Enoch and Noah ; by angels, as 
in the case of Sodom ; and by 
the Son of God himself. See 
Pre-existents. The patriarchs 
were the heads of numerous 
families, among whom they 
reigned as princes, and offici- 
ated as priests. See Acts ii. 
29 ; vii. 8, 9. Heb. vii. 4. The 
same term in Ecclesiastical 
History is applied to Primates 
or Archbishops. 

PATRICIANS, the follow- 
ers of Patricius, in the second 
century, who taught that the 
substance of the flesh is not the 
work of God, but of an evil 
bring, on which account it is 
pretended, they bore such ha- 
tred to their own bodies, as 
sometimes to kill themselves4 
See Marcionites. 

PATRIPASSIANI, or Pa- 
TRTFASSIANs, a sect which a- 
rose in the latter part of the 
second century, and received 
their name from the following 



* Gudworth's Intellectual System. 
roughton, vol. ii- p. i 



f Mosheim, vol. ii.p. 456. 



PAO 



215 



PAU 



principle :— They believed but 
one person in the Deity, (the 
Father,) and yet admitted that 
our Saviour w as divine ; hence 
their doctrine strongly implied 
the incarnation and sufferings 
of the father- Praxeas was 
esteemed the founder of this 
sect, and is called a Sabellian ; 
but Lardner thinks he was rath- 
er in the in-dwelling scheme. 
SeePre-existents.* Of the same 
sentiment seem to have been the 
Noetians and Monarchians. 

PAULIANS, or Paumait- 
ists, the followers of Paul of 
Samosata, bishop of Antioch, 
in the third century, who taught 
that the Son and the Holy 
Ghost exist in God, in the same 
manner as the faculties of rea- 
son and activity do in man : 
that Christ was born a mere 
man; but that the reason, or 
wisdom of the Father descend- 
ed into him, and wrought mir- 
acles i and that, on this account 
Christ might, though improp- 
erlv, be called God.f 

PAULICIANS, a sect of 
Gnostics formed in the seventh 
century by two brothers, Paul 
and John, of Jerusalem, from 
ihe former of whom they derive 
their name. 

The tenets attributed to this 
•ectare: — 1. That the inferi- 
our and visible world is not the 
production of the supreme Be- 
ing. — 2. That the evil princi- 
ple was engendered by dark- 
ness and fire, not self-originat- 
ed nor eternal. — 3. That though 



Christ was the Son of Mary, 
yet he brought from heaven his 
human nature, i. e. perhaps his 
human soul. — 4. That he was 
clothed with an ethereal, ?nd 
impassible body, and did not 
really expire on the cross. — 5. 
That the bread and wine which 
Christ is said to have adminis- 
tered to his disciples at his last 
supper, is to be figuratively 
taken. — 6. They rejected the 
old testament, and epistles of 
St. Peter.} 

Such is the account given by 
Mosheim and other ecclesias- 
tical historians ; but very dif- 
ferent is the character given of 
them by Mr. Milner. He sup- 
poses the Paulicians took their 
name from the apostle himself, 
whose writings they particu- 
larly studied. The founder of 
the sect was, according to him, 
one Constantine, who assumed 
the name of Sylvanus. The 
errours charged upon them he 
considers as the calumnies of 
their adversaries, except as to 
the sacrament : and that their 
moral character was irreproach- 
able. It is agreed on all hands 
that they refused to worship 
the virgin Mary and the cross ; 
and Mr. Milner adds, that they 
rejected image worship and ac- 
knowledged one mediator only. 
They had no hierarchy, but 
their ministers claimed a per- 
fect equality ; and they were 
not distinguished by any sacer- 
dotal vestments. Their foun- 
der suffered martyrdom, and the 



# Lardner's Heretics, p. 414, 415. 

f Mosheim, y©1. i. p. 248. * Mos1ie*up, vol. ii. p. 175, 176. 



PED 



216 



PED 






denomination were for an hun- 
dred and fifty years the subjects 
of a cruel persecution.* 

PEDO- or PJEDO-BAr- 
TISTS, all who practise infant 
baptism. They believe that 
baptism is to be a dininistered 
to believers and their children, 
and that the infants of chris- 
tian parents belong to the visible 
Ghurch of Christ. 

That the visible church is one 
and the same body, both under 
the law and gospel ; for the 
Gentiles are grafted into the 
same stock from which the un- 
believing Jews were broken 
off: Rom. xi. 17. That the 
Gentiles should be fellow-heirs 
of the same body, and partak- 
ers of the promise in Christ by 
the gospel. Matt. xxi. 43. 
Eph. ii. 11, &c. 

The covenant made with 
Abraham was the covenant of 
grace ; for God preached before 
the gospel unto Abraham, that 
the blessing of Abraham might 
come an the gentiles through Je- 
sus Chiist. Gal. iii. 8 — 14. 
Christians, being the spiritual 
seed of Abraham, arc under 
the same covenant, and entitled 
to the same privileges, which 
they may justly claim also for 
their infants. Ads ii. 39. 

I. Baptism is now used in the 
room of circumcision. For 1. 
Circumcision was appointed to 
be the token of the covenant of 
grace : it w-s a si^n and sen I 
of the righteousness of faith, 
the same thing which is signi- 
fied by christian baptism. — 



2. Circumcision was appointed 
to be the sacred symbol of ini- 
tiation into the visible church. 
So baptism is a seal of initia- 
tion into the visible church. — 

3. The same inward grace is 
signified both by circumcision 
and baptism. Rom. ii. 28, 29. 
To be a Jew r inwardly, by be- 
ing circumcised with the cir- 
cumcision of the heart, and to 
be a christian inwardly, by be- 
ing washed with the washing of 
regeneration, (Titus iii. 5.) is 
one and the same thing. Bap- 
tism is also called the circumci- 
sion of Christ. Col. ii. 11. 

II. Infant baptism, they say. 
was the approved practice of 
the apostles. For the scriptures 
give us an account of the bap- 
tism of whole households; as the 
gaoler and his household, Ly- 
dia and her household, and the 
household of Stephanas : and 
some of these, it is presumed, 
must have contained children. 

The Pedobaptists also con- 
clude that sprinkling was the 
practice of the apostles, because 
such great numbers were con- 
verted and baptized, where the 
circumstances, shortness of 
time, and situation of place, 
render it unlikely that they 
were baptized by immersion. 

III. The Pedobaptists prac- 
tise baptism by affusion, or 
sprinkling, which, they think 
scriptural, from the import of 
the original word, which, the) 
say, signifies washing, and is 
used in scripture for washing 
tilings which were not dipped 



* HUM* Chinch Hist. vol. ii*. p. 206, 



PED 



£17 



PED 



iu water. (Luke xi. 38.) The 
influences of the spirit, repre- 
sented in baptism, are often ex- 
pressed by pouring, or sprink- 
ling ; as the renewing of the 
Hoiy Ghost, which he has pour- 
ed out, or shed, on us abund- 
antly. Acts x. 45. Titus iii. 6. 

IV. Among the Pedobap- 
tists, some assert farther, that 
the baptism of Christ by John 
is not an example for chris- 
tian imitation. They say, 
Christ was not baptized to 
manifest his repentance; nei- 
ther did he submit to baptism 
as an example to the Jews ; nor 
was his baptism a token of be- 
ing washed from sin. But his 
baptism was a conformity to 
the law of priestly consecrations ; 
for it answered to the washing 
of the high priest at his admis- 
sion to the priesthood. 

That the baptism of John was 
not christian baptism they con- 
dude, because : — 1. The grand 
design of John's baptism was 
the manifestation of Christ; 
but christian baptism is used for 
different purposes. — 2. John's 
baptism began and ended sm- 
der the legal dispensation. The 
gospel kingdom did not begin 
till Christ rose from the dead. 
John's baptism was completed 
before the death of Christ, and 
consequently fell short of new 



testament times ; for * where a 
testament is, there must also of 
necessity be the death of the 
testator." Heb. ix. 16, 17. — 
3. The Holy Trinity was not 
named in John's baptism. This 
is plain, because there is an ac- 
count that some were baptized 
by John, and yet had not heard 
of the Holy Ghost. (Acts xix. 2, 
5.) The consequence inferred 
is, John's baptism was not chris- 
tian baptism.^ 

Some Pedobaptists, however, 
take a more simple view of this 
subject. Considering baptism 
as an act of religious worship, 
they represent adult baptism 
as an act of self-dedication, and 
the baptism of their children 
as the dedication of their off- 
spring to the Lord. And they 
observe that many Baptists, on 
the birth of their children, dedi- 
cate them to God in the same 
manner, except only that they 
omit the use of water. As to 
immersion, they admit that it 
was frequently and perhaps 
generally, practised in the a- 
postolic times; but they sup- 
pose the mode no more essen- 
tial in this than in the sister or- 
dinance of the Lord's supper ; 
and this they consider equally 
valid under the different forms 
in which it is administered and 
received, whether sitting, stand- 



* Clarke's Scripture Ground of the Baptism of Infants. Parson's Infant 
Baptism vindicated. Bostwick's Vindication of Infant Baptism. Lathrop's 
Sprinkling a Scripture Mode. Cleveland on Infant Baptism. Fish's Japheth 
dwelling in the Tents of Shem. Lewis' Covenant Interest of the Children of 
Believers. Towgood's Baptism of Infants a Reasonable service. Strong's 
Demonstration of Infant Baptism. Glass' Dissertation on Infant Baptism. Al- 
len's Essay on outward Christian Baptism. Fish's and Crane's Baptism of Je- 
sus Christ not to be imitated bv christians* Edwards' Candid Reasons. 
28 



PEL 



£18 



PEN 



ing, or kneeling — and whether 
the elements consist of unleav- 
ened bread, and wine lowered 
by water, as in the primitive 
church j or, as with us, leaven- 
ed bread, and wine of various 
sorts, according to circumstan- 
ces — or whether the time be in 
the morning, at noon, in the 
afternoon, or evening. 

PELAGIANS, a denomina- 
tion in the fifth century, so 
called from Pelagius, a monk, 
who looked upon the doctrines 
which were commonly received 
concerning the original corrup- 
tion of human nature, and the 
necessity of divine grace to en- 
lighten the understanding and 
purify the heart, as prejudicial 
to the progress of holiness and 
virtue, and tending to establish 
mankind in a presumptuous and 
fatal security. He maintain- 
ed the following doctrines : — 
1 . That the sin of our first par- 
ents w as imputed to them only, 
and not to their posterity ; and 
that we derive no corruption 
from their fall, but are born as 
pure as Adam when he came 
out of the hands of his Creator. 
— 2. That mankind, therefore, 
are capable of repentance and 
amendment, and of arriving to 
the highest degrees of piety and 
virtue, by the use of their nat- 
ural faculties and powers; that, 
indeed, external grace is neces- 
sary to excite their endeav- 
ours, but that they have no need 
of the internal SUCCOUR of the 



divine spirit.— 3. That Adam 
was by nature mortal ; and, 
whether he had sinned or not, 
would certainly have died. — 
4. That the grace of God is 
given in proportion to our mer- 
its. — 5. That mankind may ar- 
rive at a state of perfection in 
this life — 6. That the law qual- 
ified men for the kingdom of hea- 
ven, and was founded upon equal 
promises with the gospel.* 

PELEW ISLANDS. The 
inhabitants of these islands be- 
lieve in one God, in the unlim- 
ited extent of his government, 
in the most important moral 
distinctions, and religious du- 
ties as taught hy the light of 
nature, in the immortality of 
the soul, and in future rewards 
and punishments. They have 
very few forms of religion, lit- 
tle ceremony in their worship, 
and no houses or temples devot- 
ed to this purpose.f 

♦PENITENTS, certain re- 
ligious societies of both sex- 
es among the Roman Cath- 
olics. The male penitents are 
distinguished by the colour of 
their garments, white, black, 
blue, &c. The black penitents 
(called the brethren of mercy, 
instituted 1488,) attended crim- 
inals to their execution. The 
female penitents are chiefly re- 
formed courtezans, as the pen- 
itents of St. Magdalen, at Par- 
is and Marseilles, the converts 
of the name of Jesus at Seville, 



* Motheim, vol. i. p. 412. Miner's Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 390, &c. 
, published 1817, p. 
Lck*s ThcoWi Diet. 



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219 



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PEPUZIANS. SeeJtfbnte- 
iiis t s 
*PEREMAZANOFTSCH- 

INS, re-anointers, a sect which 
separated from the Russian 
church of Votka about 1770. 
They are very numerous at 
Moscow, and agree in almost 
every thing with the Starrob- 
redsi, except that they reanoint 
all who join them from other 
communions. # 

*PERFE CTIO NISTS, those 
who hold it possible to attain 
perfection in the present life. 
See Methodists. 

*PERSEES, a sect in India 
descended from the ancient 
Persians, who worshipped fire. 
See Gaurs and Magians. 

PETROBRUSSIANS, a de- 
nomination which was formed 
about the year 1110 in Langue- 
doc and Provence, by Peter de 
Bruys, who taught the follow- 
ing doctrines : — 1. That no per- 
sons were to be baptized before 
they came to the full use of 
their reason. — 2. That it was 
an idle superstition to build 
churches for the service of God, 
who will accept of a sincere 
worship wherever it is offered : 
and that such churches had no 
peculiar sanctity attached to 
them. — 3. That the crucifixes 
deserved the same fate — 4. That 
the real body and blood of 
Christ were not exhibited in the 
eucharist, but were only repre- 
sented in that holy ordinance 
by their figures and symbols. — 

.303 



5. That the oblations, prayers, 
and good works of the living, 
could be in no respect advanta- 
geous to the dertd.f — 6. That 
crucifixes and other instru- 
ments of superstition should be 
destroyed. 

Peter de Bruys (says Dr. 
Haweis) " inveighed against 
the vices apd superstitions of 
the times, and boldly attacked 
the tyranny and abuses of Rome 
as antichristian. The enraged 
clergy stirred up the populace, 
and he was burnt alive, not ju- 
dicially, but in a tumult rais- 
ed by the priests. 55 ^: 

PHARISEES, the most cel- 
ebrated of all the Jewish sects, 
which is supposed to have sub- 
sisted above a century before 
the appearance of our Saviour. 
They separated themselves, not 
only from the Gentiles, but 
from all other Jews ; but their 
separation consisted chiefly in 
certain distinctions respecting 
food and religious ceremonies ; 
and does not appear to have in- 
terrupted the uniformity of re- 
ligious worship, in which the 
Jews of every sectunited.§ The 
dissensions between the schools 
of Hillel and Shammai, a little 
before the christian era, in- 
creased the number and power 
of the Pharisees : Hillel and 
Shammai were two great and 
eminent teachers in the Jewish 
schools. Hillel was born an 
hundred and twelve years be- 
fore Christ. Having acquired 



* Pinkerton's Greek Church, p. 

f Mosheim, vol. ii. p, 446, 447. $ Haweis' Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 22 

§ Percy's Key to the New Testament. 



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PHA 



a profound knowledge of the 
most difficult points of the law, 
he became master of the chief 
school in Jerusalem, and laid 
the foundation of the Talmud. 
Shammai, one of the disciples 
of Hillel, deserted his school, 
and formed a college, in which 
he taught doctrines contrary to 
his master. He rejected the 
oral law, and followed the writ- 
ten law only in its literal sense. 
See Karaites. These schools 
longdisturbed the Jewish church 
by violent contests ; the party 
of Hillel w r as at last victorious.* 
When our Saviour Jesus 
Christ appeared in Judea, the 
Pharisees were in great cred- 
it among the people, because 
of the opinion of their learn- 
ing, sanctity, and exact observ- 
ance of the law. They fasted 
often, made long prayers, paid 
tythes scrupulously, and dis- 
tributed mucli alms. They 
wore large rolls of parchment 
on their foreheads and wrists, 
on which were written certain 
words of the law ; they affect- 
ed to have fringes and borders 
at the corners and hems of their 
garments, broader than those 
of the other Jews, as a bpdge 
of ( ion, and os denoting 

them to be greater observer:; of 
the law than oth( 

This denomination by their 
show of piety bad rendered 

retiiely pop 
among the multitude; and the 
who feared their arti- 
fice, were obliged to court their 
favour. Hence they obtained 

* Encyclopedia, vol. xrii. p. 101. 



the highest offices both in the 
state and priesthood, and had 
great weight both in public and 
private affairs. It appears from 
the frequent mention, which is 
made by the evangelists, of the 
Scribes and Pharisees in con- 
junction, that the greater num- 
ber of Jewish teachers, (for they 
were the scribes,) were at that 
time of this sect. 

The principal doctrines of 
the Pharisees are as follow : — 
That the oral law, which they 
suppose God delivered to Mo- 
ses by an angel on Mount Si- 
nai, and which was preserved 
by tradition, is of equal author- 
ity with the written law : — 
That by observing both these 
laws, a man may not only ob- 
tain justification with God, but 
perform meritorious works of 
supererogation : — That fasting, 
almsgiving, ablutions, and con- 
fessions, are sufficient atone- 
ments for sin : — That thoughts 
and desires are not sinful, un- 
less they are carried into ac- 
tion. This denomination ac- 
knowledged the immortality of 
the soul, future rewards and 
punishments, the existence of 
good and evil angels, and the 
resurrection of the body. 

According to Josephus. the 
Pharisees maintained onl\ i 
PythAgonan resurrection, that 
is of the soul, by its transmi- 
gration into another body, and 
being born anew with it. From 
this resurrection, he says, they 
excluded all who were notori- 
ously wicked ; being of opinion 



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that the souls of such persons 
were transmitted into a state of 
everlasting woe. As to lesser 
crimes, they held they were 
punished in the body, which the 
souls of those who committed 
them were next sent into. 

There seems indeed to have 
been entertained amongst the 
Jews in our Saviour's time a 
notion of the pre-existence of 
souls. How else could the dis- 
ciples ask concerning the blind 
man, " Who did sin, this man 
or Ms parents, that he was born 
blind ?" (John ix. 2.) And 
when they told Christ that 
46 some said he was Elias, Jere- 
mias, or one of the prophets," 
(Matt. xvi. 14.) the meaning 
seems to be, that they thought 
lie was come into the world 
with the soul of Elias, or some 
other of the old prophets, trans- 
migrated into him. 

It does not appear, however, 
that these notions were at all 
peculiar to the Pharisees ; and 
still less, that in them consisted 
their doctrine of the resurrec- 
tion. It is a well-known fact, 
that the resurrection of the body 
was commonly believed among 
the Jews, even in the most de- 
generate period of their history. 
This is manifest from the story 
of the seven brethren, who, with 
their mother, were put to death 
by Antiochus Epiphanes in one 
day ; (2 Mac. vii. xii. 43, 44.) 
to which story the writer of the 
epistle to the Hebrews, in chap, 
xi. 35. clearly alludes, saying, 
" others were tortured, not ac- 
/ cepting deliverance, that they 



might obtain a better resurrec- 
tion" And when Martha, the 
sister of Lazarus, was told that 
her brother should rise again, 
she answered, « I know that he 
shall rise again in the resur- 
rection at the last day ; (John 
xi. 23, 24.) which implies, that 
this doctrine was at that time 
a well-known and acknowledg- 
ed truth. Luke also says ex- 
pressly, that the Pharisees con- 
fess the resurrection. (Actsxxiii. 
3.) And Paul, speaking be- 
fore Felix of his hope towards 
God, says, "Which they them- 
selves [the Pharisees] also al- 
low, that there shall be a resur- 
rection both of the just and un- 
just. (Acts xxiv. 15.) If the 
doctrine of the resurrection, as 
held by the Pharisees, had been 
nothing more than the Pytha- 
gorean transmigration, it is be- 
yond all credibility that such 
testimony would have been 
borne of it. 

The peculiar manners of this 
sect are strongly marked in the 
writings of the evangelists, and 
confirmed by the testimony of 
the Jewish authors. According 
to the latter, they fasted the 
second and fifth days of the 
week, and put thorns at the 
bottom of their robes, that they 
might prick their legs as they 
walked. They lay upon boards 
covered with flint-stones, and 
tied thick cords about their 
waists. They paid tythcs as the 
law prescribed, and gave the 
thirtieth and fiftieth part of their 
fruits ; adding voluntary sacri- 
fices to those which were com- 



PHI 



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PHI 



manded. They were very ex- 
act in performing their vows. — 
The Talmudic books mention 
several distinct classes of Phar- 
isees, among whom were the 
Truncated Pharisee, who, that 
he might appear in profound 
meditation, as if destitute of 
feet, scarcely lifted them from 
the ground ; and the Mortar 
Pharisee, who, that his con- 
templations might not be dis- 
turbed, wore a deep cap in the 
shape of a mortar, which would 
only permit him to look upon 
the ground at his feet. Thus 
did they study to captivate the 
admiration of the vulgar : and 
under the veil of singular piety, 
they often disguised the most 
licentious manners.^ 

PHILADELPHIAN SO- 
CIETY, the followers oi Jane 
Leadley, who, towards the con- 
clusion of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, by her visions, predictions, 
and doctrines, gained a con- 
siderable number of disciples, 
among whom were some per- 
sons of learning. This woman 
was of opinion that all dissen- 
sions among christians would 
cease, and the kingdom of the 
Redeemer heroine glorious, if 
all who bear the name of Jesus, 
willioui regarding the forms of 
doctrine and discipline, which 
distinguish particular commun- 
ions, would join in committing 
their souls to the guidance of 
the Holy Spirit, by his divine 
impulses and She 

went further, and declared that 



she had a divine commission to 
proclaim the near approach of 
this glorious event. This as- 
sertion she delivered with the 
utmost confidence, that the 
Philadelphian Society was the 
true kingdom of Christ, in 
which alone the divine Spirit 
resided and reigned. She also 
maintained the doctrine of uni- 
versal salvation. See Leadley 
and Uninersalists.] 

*PHILIPISTS ; the follow- 
ers of Philip Melancthon, the 
amiable reformer, were some- 
times so called. 

^PHILISTINES, an ancient 
nation situated on the borders 
of Canaan, remarkable for their 
idolatry, and particularly for 
the worship of Dagon, whose 
image however could not stand 
before the ark. See 1 Sam. 
chap. v. 

*PHILOPONISTS. Sec 
Trithcists. 

*PHILOSOPHISTS, anoth- 
er name for the sect of the 
Illuminati, and particularly for 
the infidel triumvirate, who 
plotted the ruin of Christianity, 
— Voltaire, Diderot, and D' 
Alembert. The former being 
weary, as lie said, of hearing that 
twelve men propagated Chris- 
tianity through the world, was 
determined to show 7 that far less 
were sufficient to overturn it. 
The private watch-word of the 
party was, Ecrasez I 9 injamc, 
•• ('rush the wretch " — meaning 
Christ, the great object of their 
hatred and aversion. -\. 



mie'i B&sUof the Bible, vol. v. p. 122—413. 
■f Mo ■ ■!. v. p. 66, 67. 

* Sec Barruel'f Memoirs of Jacobinisms 



PIE 



225 



PIE 



PHOTINIANS, the follow- 
ers of Photinus, bishop of Sir- 
mium, in the fourth century. 
He taught that Jesus Christ was 
conceived of the Holy Ghost and 
born of the Virgin Mary ; r — that 
a certain divine emanation, or 
ray of divinity (which he called 
the Word) descended upon this 
extraordinary man : — that, on 
account of the union of the di- 
vine Word with his human na- 
ture, Jesus was called the Son 
of God, and even God himself. 
They also taught that the Holy 
Ghost was not a distinct person, 
but a celestial virtue proceed- 
ing from the Deity.* 

^PHRYGIANS, or Cata- 
phrygians, a small party of 
Montanists, who resided in 
Phrygia. See Montanists. 

PICARDS, the Adamites of 
the fifteenth century, a set who 
went naked in their religious 
assemblies. It is generally be- 
lieved that such a sect existed 
also in the primitive Church ; 
but Lardner refuses to believe 
it, because they are not men- 
tioned by any writer earlier 
than Epiphanius, and by him 
only from uncertain report, f 

PIETISTS, a denomination 
in the seventeenth century, 
which owed its origin to the 
pious and learned Spener, who 
formed private societies at 
Frankfort, in order to promote 
vital and practical religion; and 
published a book, entitled, "Pi- 
ous desires," which greatly pro- 
moted this object. "His follow- 



ers laid it down as an essential 
maxim, that none should be ad- 
mitted into the ministry but such 
as had received a proper educa- 
tion, and were distinguished by 
the wisdom and sanctity of their 
manners, and had hearts filled 
with divine love. Hence they 
proposed an alteration of the 
schools of divinity, which con- 
sisted in the following points : 
— 1. That the systematical the- 
ology which reigned in the acad- 
emies, and was composed of 
intricate and disputable doc- 
trines, and obscure and unusual 
forms of expression, should be 
totally abolished. — 2. That po- 
lemical divinity, which compre- 
hended the controversies sub- 
sisting between christians of 
different communions, should 
be less eagerly studied, and less 
frequently treated, though not 
entirely neglected. — 3. That all 
mixture of philosophy and hu- 
man learning, with divine wis- 
dom, was to be most carefully 
avoided. — 4. That, on the con- 
trary, all those who were de- 
signed for the ministry should 
be accustomed from their early 
youth to the perusal and study 
of the holy scriptures, and be 
taught a plain system of theol- 
ogy, drawn from this unerring 
source of truth. — 5. That the 
whole course of theii* education 
was to be so directed as to ren- 
der them useful in life, by the 
practical power of their doc- 
trine, and the commanding in- 
fluence of their example.-): 



* Mosheim, vol. i. p. 346. Broughton, vol. ii. p. 441. 

t Lardner's Heretics, p. 16S. % Mosheim, vol iv. p. 454-460. 



PLA 



224 



PLA 



But it was not on preachers 
only, but on all their members, 
that exemplary piety and prac- 
tical religion were enjoined. 
Like the society of Friends, and 
others, they renounced all vain 
amusements, and attended meet- 
ings of devotion. 

*PILGRIMS, in ecclesias- 
tical history, are certain per- 
sons who undertook, from reli- 
gious motives, long and painful 
journies to the holy land, 
Rome, or the shrines of certain 
saints. The former became so 
numerous in the middle ages 
that, on their account chiefly, 
the holy war was undertaken. 
See Crusaders. 

PLATONISTS. The Pla- 
tonic philosophy is denominated 
from Plato, who was born about 
two hundred and sixty seven 
years before Christ. He found- 
ed the old academy on the opin- 
ions of Heraclitus, Pythagoras, 
and Socrates ; and by adding 
the information he had acquir- 
ed to their discoveries, he es- 
tablished a sect of philosophy 
who were esteemed more per- 
il than any who had before 
appeared in the world. 

The outlines of Plato's philo- 
bical system were as foil 
— That there is one (rod, etcr- 
nal, immii nd immate- 

rial ; perfect in wisdom and 
nt, and om- 
nipresent, this all-per- 
fecl Being tbrmed the uniw 
out of a mass of eternally pre- 
existing matter, to which he 
and arrangement. 



That there is in matter a neces- 
sary, but blind and refractory 
force, which resists the will of 
the supreme Artificer ; so that 
he cannot perfectly execute his 
designs : and this is the cause 
of the mixture of good and evil, 
which is found in the material 
world. That the soul of man 
was derived by emanation from 
God ; but that this emanation 
was not immediate, but through 
the intervention of the soul of 
the world, which was itself de- 
based by some material admix- 
ture. That the relation which 
the human soul, in its original 
constitution, bears to matter, is 
the source of moral evil. That 
when God formed the universe, 
he separated from the soul of 
the world inferiour souls, equal 
in number to the stars, and as- 
signed to each its proper celes- 
tial abode. That these souls 
were sent down to earth to be 
imprisoned in mortal bodies : 
hence arose the depravity and 
misery to which human nature 
is liable. That the soul is im- 
mortal : and by disengaging 
itself from all animal passions, 
and rising above sensible ob- 
jects to the contemplation of 
the world of intelligence, it may 
be prepared to return to its ori- 
ginal habitation. Th at matter 
never suffers annihilation : but 
that the world will remain for- 
ever ; and that by the action of 
animating principle, it i 

certain periods,with- 
in which e\ r thing returns to 
its ancient pine? and 



PLA 



225 



POP 



This periodical revolution of 
nature is called the Platonic, 
or great year.* 

The Platonic system makes 
the perfection of morality to 
consist in living in conformity 
to the will of God, the only au- 
thor of true felicity ; and teach- 
es that our highest good con- 
sists in the contemplation and 
knowledge of the supreme Be- 
ing, whom he emphatically 
styles the good.] The end of 
this knowledge is to make men 
resemble the Deity, as much as 
is compatible with human na- 
ture. This likeness consists in 
the possession and practice of 
all the moral virtues4 

After the death of Plato many 
of his disciples deviated from 
his doctrines. His school was 
then divided into the old, the 
middle, and the new academy. 
The old academy strictly ad- 
hered to his tenets. The mid- 
dle academy partially receded 
from his system, without entire- 
ly deserting it. The new acad- 
emy, founded by Carneades, 
an African, almost entirely re- 
linquished the original doctrines 
of Plato, and verged towards 
the sceptical philosophy. 

* Enfield's Hist, of Philosophy, vol. i. p. 227, 228. 

t Plato believed that in the divine nature there are two, and probably 
three hypostases. — The first he considered as self-existent, calling him, by way 
of eminence, the Being {r» ov) or (to bv) the One* The only attribute which 
he acknowledged in this person was goodness ; and therefore he frequently 
styles him the ( T0 ay^ov^) the good. The second he considered as (vot;$) the 
mind, or {Xoyo$) the wisdom or reason of the former, and the {Jy,t<ii6vpyc$) 
maker of the world. The third he always speaks of as (^t;;^) the soul of 
the world. He taught that the second is a necessary emanation from the 
first and the third from the second, or perhaps from both ; comparing- these 
emanations to those of light and heat from the sun. Encyclopedia, vol. xviii. 
p. 43. 

* Dacier's Plato, vol. 1. p. 7, 8. £ Pinkerton's Greek Chnrch, p. 3 

<29 



PLOTINISTS, the disciples 

of Plotinus, a celebrated pla- 

tonic philosopher, the disciple 
of Ammonius, who founded the 
sect of the Academists, the pop- 
ular philosophy during the first 

ages of Christianity. See Aca- 
demics and Ammonians. 

*PNEUMATOMACHIANS. 
See Macedonians. 

*POLYTHEISTS, those who 
worship many gods. See Pa- 
gans. 

*POMORYANS, certain Rus- 
sian sectaries, who believe that 
antichrist is already come; 
reigns in the world unseen, that 
is, spiritually ; and has put an 
end in the church to every 
thing that is holy. They are 
zealous in opposing the inno- 
vations of Nikon, with regard 
to the church books; prefer a 
life of celihacy and solitude, 
and rebaptize their converts 
from other sects.§ See Russian 
church. 

^POPERY, the system of 
the Papists, or Roman Catholics, 
which see 

*POPOFTCHINS, the great 
body of the Russian dissenters, 
including all those sects which 
admit the ordination of the 



PRE 



ZZ6 



PRE 



mother church, but differ from 
each other in certain particu- 
lars of little moment. Most of 
their ministers are bred up in 
the establishment.* 

PRE-ADAMITES, a denom- 
ination given to the inhabitants 
of the earth, conceived by some 
people to have lived before 
Adam. 

Isaac de la Pereyra, a French 
Protestant, in 1655, published a 
book to evince the realityof Pre- 
Adamites, by which he gain- 
ed a considerable number of 
proselytes to the opinion ; but 
the answer of Demarets, pro- 
fessor of theology at Gronin- 
gen, published the following 
year, put a stop to its progress, 
though Pereyra wrote a reply. 

To support their principal 
tenet advocated by Pereyra, 
that there must have been men be- 
fore Mam, his followers reason 
thus : 

1. They argue from Rom. v. 
12 — 14. The apostle says, 
" sin was in the world till the 
law ;" meaning the law given 
to Adam : But sin, it is evident, 
was not imputed, though it 
might liave been committed, be- 
fore bis time ; for ••' sin is not 
imputed where there is no law" 
— 2. The election of the Jews 
is supposed to be a consequence 
of the same system : it bfegan 
.it Adam, who is called their la- 
theri or founder. God is also 
their Father, having espoused 



the judaical church. The gen- 
tiles are only adopted chil- 
dren, as being Pre-Adamites. 
— 3. Men,f i. e. the gentiles, 
are said to be made by the 
word of God. (Gen. i. 26, 27.) 
Adam, the founder of the Jew- 
ish nation, (whose history alone 
Moses wrote,) is introduced in 
the second chapter as the work- 
manship of God's own hands, 
and as created apart from oth- 
er men. — 4. Cain, having kill- 
ed his brother, was afraid of 
being killed himself! By whom: 
— He married ! Yet what wife 
could he get ? — He built a town ! 
AVhat workmen did he employ ? 
The answer to all these ques- 
tions is in one word, Pre-Ad- 
amites. — 5. The deluge only 
overflowed the country inhab- 
ited by Adam's posterity, to 
punish them for joining in mar- 
riage with the Pre-Adamites, 
and following their evil cours- 
es. — 6. The improvements in 
arts, sciences, &c. could not 
make such advances towards 
perfection, as it is represented 
they did between Adam and 
Moses, unless they had been 
cultivated before. — Lastly : the 
histories of Die Chaldeans, E- 
gyptians, and Chinese, whose 
chronology (as founded cm as- 
tronomical calculations) is sup- 
posed Infallible, demonstrate 
the existence of men before 
Adam.l 

PREDESTINAMANS, a 



* Pilikerton's Greek church, p 298. 

-j- Observe, the plural number is here Used, in contra li to the 

founder of the Jewish nation, who i^ called A<l:<m, in the e 

* B Bibliotfa. p. 36, Picart's Kclirious Orcmr, 
Blounl'i Oracle! of Reason. Basnage's History ofthe .1 •» b. '». 



PRE 



227 



PRE 



name given in the ninth cen- 
tury to the followers of Godes- 
chalus, a German monk, whose 
sentiments were as follow : — 

1. Thatthe Deity predestinated 
a certain number to salvation, 
before the world was formed. — 

2. That he predestinated the 
wicked to eternal punishment 
in consequence of their sins, 
which were eternally foreseen, 
— 3. That Christ came not to 
save all men individually, and 
that none shall perish for whom 
he shed his blood. — 4. That 
since the fall, mankind can ex- 
ercise free-will only to do that 
which is evil.* The term Pre- 
destinarian has since been ap- 
plied to all doctrinal Calvinists, 
who hold, for substance, the 
same opinions. See Calvinists. 

PRE-EXISTENTS, aname 
which may not improperly be 
applied to those who hold the 
doctrine of Christ's pre-exist- 
ence. This name comprehends 
two classes : the Arians, who 
defend Christ's pre-existence, 
but deny that he is a divine 
person : and others on the Cal- 
vinistic side, who assert both 
his divinity, and that his intel- 
ligent, created soul, was pro- 
duced into being, and united 
by an ineffable union to the sec- 
ond person of the trinity, be- 
fore the heavens and the earth 
were created. 

Under the article Avians, the 



reader has been presented with 
a view of the system of Arius 
and his immediate followers. 
The sentiments of the celebrat- 
ed Dr. Richard Price will be 
brought to view under the arti- 
cle Unitarians. In this place 
a short sketch will be given of 
the hypothesis, which was 
maintained by Dr. Samuel 
Clarke. 

This learned man held, that 
there is one supreme cause and 
original of all things ; one sim- 
ple, uncompounded, undivided, 
intelligent agent, or person ; 
and that from the beginning 
there existed with the first and 
supreme cause, (the Father,) a 
second person, called the Word, 
or Son, who derived his be- 
ing, attributes, and powers, 
from the Father. He is there- 
fore called the Son of God, and 
the only -begotten jf for gener- 
ation, when applied to God, is 
only a figurative word, signify- 
ing immediate derivation of be- 
ing and life from him. 

To prove that Jesus Christ 
was generated (or produced) 
before the world was created, 
the doctor adduces the follow^ 
ing considerations : TheFather 
made the world by the opera- 
tion of the Son. (John i. 3 — 10. 
1 Cor. viii. 6. Eph. iii. 9. &c.) 

That all Christ's authority, 
power, knowledge, and glory, 
are the Father's, communicated 



* Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 159. Eccles. Hist, of France, p. 63. 
Baxter's Church History, chap. x. p. 263. 

f Dr. Clarke waves calling Christ a creature, as the ancient Arians did ; 
and principally on that foundation, denies the charge of Arianism. 



PRE 



228 



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i. c. spoken of figuratively in 
scripture, under personal char- 
acters.! 

In order to prove that Christ's 
human soul existed previous to 
his incarnation, the following 
arguments are adduced. 

I. Christ is represented as 
his Father's messenger, or an- 
gel, being distinct from and 
sent by his Father, long before 
his incarnation, to perform ac- 
tions which seem to be too low 
for the dignity of pure godhead. 
The appearances of Christ to 
the patriarchs are described 
like the appearances of an an- 
gel, or man, really distinct from 
God ; yet such a one, in whom 
Jehovah had a peculiar in- 
dwelling* or with whom the di- 
vine nature had a personal un- 
ion. 

II. Christ, when he came into 
the world, is said, in several 
passages of scripture, to have 
divested himself of some glory, 
which he had before his incar- 
nation. Now, if there had ex- 
isted, before his incarnation, 
nothing but his divine nature, 
this divine nature could not 
properly divest itself of any 
glory. I have glorified thee 
ear ill ; 1 have finished the work, 
which ihou gavest vie to do. 
dud voir. Faiiier, ^lorifij thou 
vie with thine awn self, with the 
glory, which 1 had with liter be- 
fore the world was. See John 

\\ ii.4, 5. Ye know lit 

*s Scripture Dbctrii Doddridge' I 

■(■ Dr. W of Christ, that true and pro- 

d to the ! nd Hoi) Spirit. The expre 

ted exclusively to the humanity of 

Christ. 



to him, Dr. Clarke endeavours 
to prove by a variety of scrip- 
tures. The Son, before his in- 
carnation, was with and in the 
form of God, and had glory 
with the Father. (John i. 2; 
xvii. 5. Phil. ii. 5.) The Son, 
before his incarnation, made 
visible appearances, and spake 
and acted in the name and au- 
thority of the invisible Father. 

Dr. Clarke calls Christ a di- 
vine person, solely on account 
of the power and knowledge 
which were communicated to 
him by the Father. He indeed 
owns that Christ is an object 
of religious worship ; but then 
he confines it to a limited sense : 
The worship paid to Christ ter- 
minates in the supreme God.* 

The doctrine of the pre- 
existence of Christ's human 
soul has been held by several 
divines ; as Mr. Fleming, Dr. 
Goodwin, and many others who 
profess to maintain the proper 
divinity of Christ. The fol- 
lowing sketch of the hypothe- 
sis of the late pious and ingen- 
ious Dr. Watte is selected from 
the rest. 

He maintained on? supreme 
God, dwelling in the human na- 
ist, which he sup- 
posed U) have existed the first 
of all creatures ; and speaks of 
the divil as the wisdom 

of God) and Use Holy Spirit as 
the divine power, which, he 
-'. is a scriptural person; 



PRE 



229 



PRE 



of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, 
though he was rich, tjet,for our 
sokes, he became poor, that you, 
through his poverty, might be 
made rich. 2 Cor. viii. 9. 

III. It seems needful that the 
soul of Christ should pre-exist, 
that it might have opportunity 
to give its previous actual con- 
sent to the great and painful 
undertaking of atonement for 
our sins. The divine nature is 
incapable of suffering. 

IV. The covenant of redemp- 
tion between the Father and 
the Son, is represented as being 
made before the foundation of 
the world. To suppose that 
the divine essence, which is the 
same in all the three personali- 
ties, should make a covenant 
with itself, seems highly incon- 
sistent. 

V. Christ is the angel to whom 
God was in a peculiar manner 
united, and who in this union 
made all the divine appearan- 
ces related in the old testament. 
See Gen. iii. 8 ; xvii. 1 ; xxviii. 
12,13; xxxii.24. Exod. iii. 2 ; 
and a variety of other passa- 
ges. 

VI. The Lord Jehovah, when 
he came down to visit men, 
carried some ensign of divine 
majesty ; he was surrounded 
with some splendid appearance ; 
such as often was seen at the 
door of the tabernacle, and fix- 
ed its abode between the cheru- 
bim. It was by the Jews call- 
ed the shekinah ; i. e. the hab- 
itation of God. Hence he is 
described as " dwelling in light, 
and clothed with light as with 



a garment." In the midst of 
this brightness there seems to 
have been sometimes a human 
form. It was probably of this 
glory that Christ divested him- 
self when he was made flesh. 
With this he was covered at his 
transfiguration in the Mount, 
when " his garments were white 
as the light ;" and at his ascen- 
sion into heaven, when a bright 
cloud received him ; and when 
he appeared to John, (Rev. i. 
13 ;) and it was with this he 
prayed that his Father would 
glorify him. 

VII. When the blessed God 
appeared in the form of a man, 
or angel, it is evident that the 
true God resided in this man, 
or angel ; because he assumes 
the most exalted names and 
characters of godhead. And 
the spectators, and sacred his- 
torians, it is evident, consider- 
ed him as true and proper God, 
and paid him the highest 
worship and obedience. He is 
properly styled " the angel of 
God 9 s presence" — and of the cov- 
enant Isaiah Ixiii. Mai. iii, 1. 

VIII. This same angel of 
the Lord was the particular 
God and King of the Israelites. 
It was he who made a cove- 
nant with the patriarchs, who 
appeared to Moses in the burn- 
ing bush, who redeemed the 
Israelites from Egypt, who con- 
ducted them through the wil- 
derness, who gave the law T at 
Sinai, and transacted the af- 
fairs of the ancient church. 

IX. The angels who have 
appeared since our blessed Sa-- 



PRE 



230 



PRE 



\iour became incarnate, have 
never assumed the names, ti- 
tles, characters, or worship, be- 
longing to God. Hence we in- 
fer that the angel who, under 
the old testament, assumed such 
titles, and accepted such wor- 
ship, was that angel in whom 
God resided, or who was unit- 
ed to the godhead in a peculiar 
manner ; even the pre-existent 
soul of Christ himself. 

X. Christ represents himself 
as one with the Father : John 
x. 30 ; xiv. 10, 11. There is, 
we may hence infer, such a pe- 
culiar union between God and 
the man Christ Jesus, both in 
his pre-existent and incarnate 
state, that he may properly be 
called God-man in one complex 
person. 

Dr. Watts supposes that the 
doctrine of the pre-existcnce of 
the soul of Christ, explains 
several dark and difficult scrip- 
tures, and discovers many beau- 
ties and proprieties of expres- 
sion in the word of God, which 
on any other plan lie unobserv- 
ed. For instance ; in Col. i. 
15, kc. Christ is described as 
" the image of the invisible 
God, tile first-born of every 
creature.*' His being the im- 
age of the invisible God, can- 
not refer merely to his divine 
nature ; for thai is as in-visible 
in the Son, as in the Fa1!» 
therefore H to refer to 

liis pre-existent soul in union 
with the godhead* Again, the 
"godhead" is said to "dwell 

* W ilt >' Hlory nfdnrist, p. 6- 
by Palmer. floridi 

u' Sketch. 



bodily in Christ," Col. ii. 9, 
and from hence this has been 
called the indwelling scheme. 

" This system," says Dr. 
Price, speaking of Dr. Watts' 
sentiments, " differs from Ari- 
anism, in asserting the doctrine 
of Christ's consisting of two 
beings ; one the self-existent 
Creator, and the other a crea- 
ture, made into one person by. 
an ineffable union and indwell- 
ing, which renders the same 
attributes and honours equally 
applicable to both."* 

Mr. Evans observes, that, 
" Between the system of Sa- 
beilianism, and what is termed 
the indwelling scheme, there 
appears to be a considerable 
resemblance, if it be not pre- 
cisely the same, differently ex- 
plained. Dr. Watts," says he, 
" towards the close of his life 
became a Sabellian, and wrote 
several pieces in defence of it." 
To prove this assertion, Mr. 
Evans refers to Dr. Watts' 
Last Thoughts on the Trinity, 
in a pamphlet published by the 
Rev. Gabriel Watts of Chiches- 
ter. It was printed by the 
Doctor in the year 1745. From 
this piece it appears, that Dr. 
Watts had discarded the com- 
mon notion of the trinity. See 
Sahcllians. 

Under this denomination, the 
plan lately advanced by the 
llev. Noah Worcester, in a 
: vied, " Bible News, re- 
lating to the living (rod, his 
ordy Son, and Holy Spirit,'* 

.Johnson's Life of Christ, with notes 
385^403. Price's Sermons, p. 331. 



PRE 



231 



PRE 



may perhaps be inserted with 
propriety. 

Mr. Worcester supposes, that 
the prc-cxistence of Christ is 
naturally implied in the numer- 
ous passages which speak of 
God's sending his Son into the 
world, and of God's giving his 
Son. The same idea is impli- 
ed in all that Christ said of his 
coming forth from the Father, 
and coming down from heaven, 
and coming forth from God. 
Such representations naturally 
import that he had existed with 
the Father, with God, and in 
heaven, before he was sent, or 
before he came into the world. 

Our author's theory respect- 
ing the metaphysical nature of 
our Saviour, is founded on the 
title Son of God, so frequently 
and so emphatically given to 
our Lord throughout the New 
Testament. He thinks that 
the language of scripture in 
which our Lord is styled God's 
"own Son," the only begotten 
Son of God, the only begotten of 
the Father, « must import that 
Jesus Christ is the Son of God 
in the most strict sense of the 
term, as truly as Isaac was 
the Son of Abraham. For in 
contradistinction to angels and 
men, and to all who may be 
called the Sons of God by crea- 
tion and adoption, Christ is def- 
initely called the Son of God. 
He, therefore, is not a created, 
intelligent being, but a being 
who properly derived his ex- 
istence and nature from God. 
He is not a self-existent being, 
for it is impossible for God to 



beget or produce a self-existent 
son ; but as Christ derived his 
existence and nature from the 
Father, he is as truly the im- 
age of the invisible God, as 
Seth w as the likeness of Adam. 
He is therefore a person of di- 
vine dignity, constituted the 
Creator of the world, the an- 
gel of God's presence, or the 
medium by which God appear- 
ed or manifested himself to the 
ancient patriarchs. According 
to this plan, the Son of God be- 
came man, or the Son of man, 
by becoming the soul of a hu- 
man body. 

Mr. Worcester asserts, that 
it is plainly and abundantly 
represented in the scriptures, 
that the Son of God did really 
and personally suffer and die 
for us. And on this ground, 
both the love of God, and the 
love of his Son, are represented 
as having been manifested in 
an extraordinary manner. And 
if the Son of God be truly the 
Son of God, a derived intel- 
ligence, these representations 
may be strictly and affectingly 
true. For on this hypothesis, 
the Son of God may be the 
same intelligent Being as the 
soul of the man Christ Jesus, 
who suffered on the cross. If, 
on the other hand, according to 
the trinitarian system, the Son 
of God was the self-existent 
God, who became mysteriously 
united to a proper man, who 
had a true body and a reason- 
able soul ; the self-existent God 
could not suffer in his divine 
nature $ but altogether in his 



PRE 



£3:2 



PRE 



liuinan nature, according to this 
theory, this man, and not the 
Son of God, endured the stripes 
by which we are healed. This 
theory, says our author, will 
not, I suspect, be found to 
admit, or support any thing 
more, than the shadow of the 
suffering and death of the Son 
of God j and as it respects the 
real character of the suffering 
Saviour, what is it better than 
Socinianism enveloped in mys- 
tery ? 

Mr. Worcester supposes, that 
the Holy Ghost is not a self- 
existent person; but that by 
the Holy Ghost is intended the 
fulness of God, or the efficient 
productive emanations of divine 
fulness. 

Our ingenious author illus- 
trates his ideas of the spirit 
by scripture metaphors. God, 
says he, is represented by the 
metaphor of the natural sun, 
" the Lord God is a sun ;" then 
the rays of light and heat, which 
emanate or proceed from the 
sun, are an emblem of the Holy 
Spirit, which proceedeth from 
the Fattier. Like the rays of the 
sim, these divine emanations 
of the fulness of God, illumi- 
nate, quicken, invigorate and 
fructify. 

In opposition to the trinita- 
rian doctrine of three distinct, 
co-equal and co-eternal persons 
in one God, our author teach- 

, that the self- ' 

only one person. « [fj 
he, •• God were three co-equal 
persons, it would be ver) nat- 
I to exped thai we should 



find explicit evidence of this in 
the manner of giving the law, 
and in the prayers of saints. 
But when the law was given 
on Mount Sinai, God spake in 
the singular number — « I am 
the Lord thy God ; thou shalt 
have no other gods before me." 
And in all the prayers through- 
out the bible, in which God is 
addressed, he is addressed as 
one individual person. 

Christ addressed the Father 
not only as one person, but as 
the " Only True God." As the 
Son he addressed the Father, 
and in his prayer he hath these 
words ; " And this is life eter- 
nal, that they might know Thee, 
the only true God, and Jesus 
Christ, whom Thou hast sent." 

The following arguments are 
adduced as a specimen of Mr. 
Worcester's manner of argu- 
ing to defend his ideas respect- 
ing the Son of God. 

" It is admitted by every 
sect of christians, that Jesus 
Christ was remarkable for hu- 
mility, and as removed in the 
greatest degree from arrogance 
and ostentation. This being 
admitted, let the following brief 
summary be considered and the 
proper conclusions drawn. 

" In two parables our Saviour 
represents himself as standing 
in the same relation to God 
that a king's son does to his 
father : '< The kingdom of hea- 
ven is like unto a certain kin t ^ 
who made a marriage for his 
Son/ Matth. xxii. 2. In the 
parable of the vineyard, Mark 
xii. 6, he contrasts himself with 



PRE 



233 



PRE 



former messengers of God in 
this manner : « Having yet, 
therefore one Son, his well be- 
loved, he sent him also last 
unto them, saying, they will 
reverence my Son." 

Christ spoke of it as a great 
display of God's love, that he 
was sent into the world. " God 
so loved the world, that he gave 
his only begotten Son, that who- 
ever believethonhim should not 
perish, but have eternal life." 

Now let it be asked, if Jesus 
were himself the Deity, what 
sense can be made of either of 
the foregoing passages ? On 
the contrary, if he were but a 
man like Moses, where was his 
humility ? But if he were indeed 
God's Son, with wiiat force do 
these passages strike the mind ! 

Again, Jesus used unexam- 
pled familiarity in speaking of 
God, and to God as his Father, 
and in coupling himself with 
God : " My Father worketh 
hitherto, and I work." 6 * I and 
my Father are one." " My Fa- 
ther is greater than I." " If a 
man love me, he will keep my 
words, and my Father will love 
him, and we will come unto 
him, and make our abode with 
him." " That they may be one, 
as thou, Father, art in me, and 
I in thee, that they may be one 
in us, even as we are one." 

We may farther observe, that 
our Saviour had evidence that 
this familiar manner of saying 
my Father, was understood by 
the Jews, as claiming the dig- 
nity of God's own Son; for 
30 



when he said, u My Father 
worketh hitherto, and I work," 
they were ready to stone him 
as a blasphemer, and affirmed 
according to the Greek, that 
he " made God his own Father." 
This they considered as sucli 
a manner of equalling himself 
with God, that he ought to be 
put to death. Yet while lie 
knew the sense in which they 
understood him, he persisted 
in his claim, but assured them 
he was dependent on the Fa- 
ther, so dependent that he could 
do nothing of himself ; and 
thus he received all his fulness, 
his life, and all his authority 
from the Father. On similar 
ground, they repeatedly accus- 
ed, and he as repeatedly vindi- 
cated his claim, and justified 
himself. 

Now what shall we say to 
these things ? Shall we say 
that Christ was the supreme 
God, and thus render all the 
representations of God's love 
in sending his Son as perfectly 
unintelligible as the doctrine 
of the Trinity ? Shall we say 
that Jesus was a mere man, and 
gave up all his claims to his 
being a pattern of humilty, and 
consider him as the most arro- 
gant and vain-glorious teacher 
that ever appeared in human 
form ? Shall we not rather ad- 
mit his claims, and regard him 
as the Son of the living God ? 

Mr. Worcester asserts, that 
the precise difference between 
him and the Arians is, he sup- 
poses a Son from the uncreat- 



PRE 



234 



PRE 



ed essence of the Deity j the 
Arians a Son created out of 
nothing.* 

PRESBYTERIANS, from 
the Greek irpeo-Gvrepos, a denom- 
ination of protestauts : so cal- 
led from their maintaining that 
the government of the church, 
appointed hy the new testa- 
ment, was by presbyters and 
ruling elders, associated for 
its government and discipline. 
The Presbyterians affirm, that 
there is no order in the church, 
as established by Christ and his 
apostles, superiour to that of 
presbyters — that all ministers, 
being embassadors, are equal 
by their commission; and the 
elder, or presbyter, and bishop, 
are the same in name and 
office, and the terms synony- 
mous, for which they allege 
Acts xx. 28. Tit. i. 5 — 7. 1 
Thes. v. 12. Heb. xiii. 7 — 17. 
and 1 Pet. v. 2, 3. 

From the time of the refor- 
mation to that of the revolu- 
tion, the Scotch church was 
torn with contentions respect- 
ing her form of church govern- 
ment; the court professing epis- 
copacy, ami the people pres- 
byterianism. add each prevailed 
by turns: buton King William's 
accession, prcshytcriaiiisin was 
finally settled to be the estab- 
lished religion, and has so 
continued ever since. Their 

form of church government Is 
as follows : — ■ 
The Kirk-session, consisting 

ol' the minister and lav elders 



of the congregation, is the low- 
est ecclesiastical judicature* 
The next is the Fresbytcry, 
which consists of all the pastors 
within a certain district, and 
one ruling elder from each 
parish. 

The provincial Synods (of 
which there are fifteen) meet 
twice in the year, and are com- 
posed of the members of the sev- 
eral presbyteries within the 
respective provinces. 

From the Kirk-sessions ap- 
peal lies to the Presbyteries — 
from these to the Synod — and 
from them to the General *#$- 
sembly, which meets annually, 
and is the highest ecclesiastical 
authority in the kingdom. This 
is composed of delegates from 
each presbytery, from every 
royal borough, and from each 
of the Scotch universities, and 
the king presides by a commis- 
sion of his own appointment. 

The Scotch ordain by the 
" laying on of the hands of the 
presbytery/' before which per- 
sons may be licensed to preach 
as probationers, but cannot ad- 
minister the sacraments. The 
clergy are maintained by the 
state, and nominated to livings 
by patrons, as in other estab 
lislnnents. 

Of tiie prcshytcrians in Eng- 
land, some preserve their con- 
nexion with the Scotch Kirk, 
and others with the relief, &c. 
Relief Kirk, Seccders, 
Burghers, &c.) But those pro- 
perly called the English prcs- 



♦ Bible News, sccon.l edition, p. 16, 26, 38, 57 f 66, 143. Respectful A<I- 
to the Tri clergy, p. 5. Manuscript of the Kev. Mr* Worcester. 



PRI 



235 



PRO 



byterians, have no connexion 
with the Scotch Kirk, though 
they preserve their forms of 
worship ; nor do they adopt 
their creeds and catechisms, 
(which are confessedly Calvin- 
istic,) but are avowed Armin- 
ians, and many of them Arians 
or Socinians.* 

The Presbyterians are nu- 
merous in the United States 
of America ; the majority of 
whom inhabit the middle and 
southern states. They had be- 
come a powerful and respecta- 
ble body in New York before 
the commencement of the pres- 
ent century. They are now 
the most numerous religious de- 
nomination in this state. The 
doctrines of the Presbyterian 
churches in America are, gen- 
erally, in strict conformity with 
the tenets of the Genevan 
school.f 

PRIMINISTS, a party so 
called from Primianus, who be- 
came the head of the Donatists, 
which see. 

PR1SCILLIANISTS, a de- 
nomination in the fourth cen- 
tury, the followers of Priscil- 
lian, a Spaniard by birth, and 
bishop of Abila. He is said to 
have adopted the principal ten- 
ets of the Manicheans : it is 
more certain that he was cruel- 



ly persecuted, even unto death* 
for his opinions. This sect 
stands charged with practising 
in some instances dissimula- 
tion ; but their morals were 
generally correct and austere.^. 

PROCLIANITES, so call- 
ed from Proculus, a philoso- 
pher of Phrygia, who appeared 
in 1 94, and put himself at the 
head of a band of Montanists, 
in order to spread the senti- 
ments of that denomination. § 
See Montanists. 

PROTESTANTS, a name 
first given in Germany to those 
who adhered to the doctrine of 
Luther; because in 1529, they 
entered a solemn protest against 
a decree of the diet of Spires, 
(which prohibited all farther 
reformation.) declaring that 
they appealed to the emperour 
Charles V,|| and to a general 
council. This name was after- 
wards given to the Calvinists, 
and has since become a common 
denomination for all who dis- 
sent from the Roman 'Catholic 
church, in whatever country 
they reside, or in whatever 
sects they have since been dis- 
tributed. 

Though some of the Protes- 
tants differ not more widely 
from the church of Rome, than 
they do from one another ; they 



vol. ii. 
.p. 1. 



Scotch Theolog. Diet. Adam's Religious 



* Collier's Hist Diet. 
World displayed, vol iii. m 

f "Wilson on the atonement. 

* Mosheim, vol. i. p. 349. Priestley's Eccles. Hist. vol. ii. p. 411. 
$ BrougMon, vol. ii. p 285. 

|j This was the second diet held at Spires on account of the religious dis- 
putes in Germany ; it was held 1529, and revoked the decrees of the former 
diets, which were favourable to the reformation. " Every change in the doc- 
trine, discipline, or worship of the established religion, was prohibited by this 
J iet." 



PRO 



236 



PRO 



agree in professing to receive 
the scriptures as the supreme 
rule of their faith and practice, 
Chillingworth, a learned di- 
vine of the church of England, 
addressing himself to a Roman 
Catholic writer, speaks of the 
religion of Protestants in the 
following terms : — " Know that 
when I say the religion of Prot- 
estants is in prudence to be 
preferred before yours ; as, on 
the one side, I do not under- 
stand by your religion the doc- 
trine of Bellarmine or Baroni- 
us, or any other private man 
amongst you, nor the doctrine 
of the Sorbonne, pv of the Jes- 
uits, or of the Dominicans, or 
of any other particular compa- 
ny among you ; but that where- 
in you all agree or profess to 
agree, the doctrine of the council 
of Trent, On the other side, by 
the religion of Protestants 1 do 
not 'understand the doctrine of 
Luther, or Calvin, or Melanc- 
thon, noi> the confession of Aus- 
burg or Geneva, nor the cata- 
chism of Heidelberg, nor the 
articles of the church of Eng- 
land, no, nor the harmony of 
Protestant confessions ; but that 
wherein they all agree, and 
which they all subscribe with a 
greater harmony, as a perfect 
rule of faith and action, that is, 
the Bible! The Bible, I say, 
the Bible only, is the religion 
of Protestants. Whatsoever 
else they believe besides ii. and 
t!ir plain irrefragable, indubi- 
table consequences of it, well 
may they hold it as a matter 
of opinion, but as a matter of 



faith and religion, neither can 
they with coherence to their 
own grounds believe it them- 
selves, nor require belief of it 
in others, without most high, 
and most schismatical presump- 
tion. I, for my part, after a 
long (and as I verily belive and 
hope) impartial search of the 
true way to happiness, do pro- 
fess plainly, that I cannot find 
any rest for the sole of my foot, 
but upon this rock only. I see 
plainly, and with my own eyes, 
that there are popes against 
popes, and councils against 
councils ; some fathers against 
other fathers, the same fathers 
against themselves; a consent 
of fathers of one age against a 
consent of fathers of another 
age; traditive interpretations 
of scripture are pretended, but 
there are few or none to be 
found ; no tradition but that of 
scripture can derive itself from 
the fountain, but may be plain- 
ly proved either to have been 
brought in, in such an age af- 
ter Christ, or that in such an 
age it was not in. In a word, 
there is no sufficient certainty, 
but of scripture only, for any 
considering man to build upon. 
This, therefore, and this only, 
I have reason to believe. This 
I will profess ; according to 
this I will live; and for this, 
if there be occasion, I will not 
only willingly, but even gladly 
lose my life, though I should be 
sorry that christians should 
take it from me/* 

" Propose me any thing out 
of the book, and require wheth- 



PUR 



237 



PUR 



er I believe or no, and seem it 
never somcomprehensible to hu- 
man reason, I will subscribe it 
with hand and heart, as know- 
ing no demonstration can be 
stronger than this, God hath 
said so, therefore it is true. In 
other things I will take no 
man's liberty of judging from 
him ; neither shall any man 
take mine from me. I will 
think no man the worse man, 
nor the worse christian; I will 
love no man the less for differ- 
ing in opinion from me. And 
what measure I mete to others, 
I expect from them again. I 
am fully assured that God does 
not, and therefore men ought 
not to require any more of man 
than this : to believe the scrip- 
ture to be God's word ; to en- 
deavour to find the true sense 
of it ; and to live according to 
it."* 

PSATYRIANS, a party of 
the Arians, in a. u. 360, who 
maintained that the Son was 
created.f See Arians. 

PTOLEMAITES, a branch 
of the Valentinians, so called 
from Ptolemy, their leader, who 
differed from his master both in 
the number and nature of the 
ceons.j^ 

PURITANS, (Cathari.) In 
the middle ages this term was 
applied to a branch of the Pau- 
llcians,(See Catharist,Jv?ho are 
charged with the tenets of the 
Manicheans; but whose prin- 



cipal crime, according to Mil- 
ner, was their aversion to the 
church of Rome. (See Pauli- 
dans.) This able historian says, 
H They were a plain, unassum- 
ing, harmless, and industrious 
race of christians; condemn- 
ing, by their doctrine and man- 
ners, the whole apparatus of 
the reigning idolatry and su- 
perstition ; placing true reli- 
gion in the faith and love of 
Christ, and retaining a supreme 
regard for the divine word."§ 

In England, the term Puri- 
tans was applied to those, who 
wished for a farther degree of 
reformation in the church than 
was adopted by Queen Eliza- 
beth, and a purer form of dis- 
cipline and worship. It was a 
common name given to all who, 
from conscientious motives, 
though on different grounds, 
disapproved of the established 
religion, from the reformation 
to the act of uniformity in 1662. 
From that time to the revolution 
in 1688, as many as refused to 
comply with the established 
worship, (among whom were 
about 2000 clergymen, and 
perhaps 500,000 people,) were 
denominated Nonconformists. 
From the passing of the act of 
toleration on the accession of 
William and Mary, the name 
of Nonconformists was changed 
to that of Protestant Dissenters. 
See Dissenters. 

The greater part of the Pu- 



* Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 71, 72. Adam's Religious World Displayed, 
lingworth's Religion of Protestants a safe way to heaven. 
f Hist, of Religion, vol. iv. * Mosheim, vol, i. p. 232. 

§ Milner's Church Hist. vol. in. p. 385. 



Chil- 



PUR 



238 



PUR 



ritans were Presbyterians.* 
Their objections to the Eng- 
lish establishment consist 
principally in forms and cere- 
monies. Some, however, were 
Independents, and some Bap- 
tists. The objections of these 
were much more fundamental ; 
disapproving of all national 
churches, and disavowing the 
authority of human legislation 
in matters of faith and worship. 
The severe persecutions car- 
ried on against the puritans du- 
ring the reigns of Elizabeth and 
the Stuarts, served to lay the 
foundation of a new empire in 
the western world. Thither, 
as into a wilderness, they fled 
from the face of their persecu- 
tors ; and, being protected in 
the free exercise of their reli- 
gion, continued to increase, till 
in about a century and a half, 
they became an independent na- 
tion. The different principles, 
however, on which they had 
originally divided from the 
church establishment at home, 
operated in a way that might 
have been expected, when they 
came to the possession of the 
civil power abroad. Those 



who formed the colony of Mas- 
sachusetts having never relin- 
quished the principle of a na- 
tional church, and of the pow- 
er of the civil magistrate in 
matters of faith and worship, 
were less tolerant than those 
who settled at New Plymouth, 
and at Rhode Island and Provi- 
dence Plantations. The very men, 
(and they were good men too,) 
who had just escaped the perse- 
cutions of the English prelates, 
now, in their turn, persecuted 
others, who dissented from 
them, until, at length, the lib- 
eral system of toleration, estab- 
lished in the parent country at 
the revolution, extending to the 
colonies, in a good measure 
put an end to these cruel pro- 
ceedings. 

Neither the puritans, nor the 
nonconformists, appear to have 
disapproved of the doctrinal ar- 
ticles of the established church. 
At least the number who did 
so, was very small. It is said 
that while the great body of the 
clergy had, from the days of 
Archbishop Laud, favoured Ar- 
minianism, they were attached 
to the principles of the first re- 



* The English church and the majority of the Puritans in Queen Eliza- 
beth's reign, agreed that some religions establishment was necessary ; and that 
the alliance between church and state was beneficial. " Both parties," says 
Mr. Neal, "agreed too well in asserting the necessity of an uniformity of pub- 
lic worship, and of calling in the sword of the magistrate for the support and 
defence of their several principles, which they made an ill use of in their turns, 
as thev could grasp the power into their hands. The standard of uniformity, 
according to the bishops, was the Queen's supremacy, and the laws of the 
land ; according to the Puritans, the & rovincial and national synods 

allowed and enforced by the civil magistrate ; but neither party were for ad- 
mitting that liberty of conscience, and freedom of profession, which is every 
man's right, as far as lientwith the peace of the government under 

which he lives." ft Hist of the Puritans -if Brooks* 

Lives of the Puritans in Christian Observer 1815. 



QUA 



239 



QUA 



formers, and by their labours 
and sufferings the spirit of the 
reformation was kept alive. 
But after the revolution many 
of the Presbyterians veered to- 
wards Arminianism, then re- 
vived the Arian hypothesis, 
and by degrees settled in So- 
cinianism. Some of the Inde- 
pendents, on the other hand, 
leaned to the Antinomian doc- 
trines ; but the rise of Metho- 
dism, in the latter part of the 
last century, greatly revived 
and encreased the dissenting 
interest ^ 

PYRRHONISTS, the disci- 
pies of Pyrrho, the sceptical 
philosopher. See Sceptics. 

PYTHAGOREAN S, the fol- 



lowers of Pythagoras, a cele- 
brated Greek philosopher, who 
flourished about five hundred 
years before the christian era. 
His distinguishing doctrine was 
that of the Metempsychosis, 
which he learned among the 
philosophers of India. This 
doctrine refers to the transmi- 
gration of the human soul after 
death into the bodies of various 
animals, till it returns again to 
its own nature. This ^notion 
led to the total rejection of an- 
imal food, and inculcated a 
merciful treatment of the brute 
creation. The symbols of this 
philosopher were highly mys- 
terious, and have never been 
completely developed.! 



Q 



Quakers, a small part 

of the American Quakers, dur- 
ing the revolutionary war, 
thought themselves at liberty to 
accept offices under govern- 
ment, or to bear arms. Among 
this party was the distinguish- 
ed military character General 
Green, who died 1786, to whom 
congress decreed a monument. 
The ancient Quakers expelled 
from their assemblies the free 
or fighting Quakers, as they 



style themselves, and they were 
obliged to form a separate con- 
gregation, which still exists in 
Philadelphia. They differ from 
others of their denomination 
only in being less rigid4 See 
Fviends. 

QU ARTODE CIMANI, a 
denomination in the second cen- 
tury; so called because they 
maintained that Easter day was 
alwavs to be celebrated, con- 
formably to the custom of the 



* Neal's History of the Puritans, 2 vol. 8vo. Palmer's Nonconformists' 
Memorial. Brooks' Lives of the Puritans, 3 vol. and Bogue and Bennett'* 
History of Dissenters, 4 vol. Svo. 

-j- Ency. Perthensis, in Pythagoras. 

t Gregoire's Histoire Des Sectes Kelig'. 



QUI 



240 



QUI 



Jews, on the fourteenth day of 
the moon of March, whatever 
day of the month that happen- 
ed to be.* 

QUIETISTS, the followers 
of Michael de Molinus, a Span- 
ish priest, who flourished in 
the seventeenth century. They 
were so called, from a kind of 
absolute rest and inaction, which 
the soul is supposed to be in, 
when arrived at that state of 
perfection, which they call the 
unitive life. 

The principles maintained by 
this denomination, are as fol- 
low : That the whole of reli- 
gion consists in the perfect 
calm and tranquillity of a mind 
removed from all external and 
finite things, and centered in 
God, and in such a pure love 
of the supreme Being, as is in- 
dependent on all prospect of in- 
terest or reward. 

For, say they, the primitive 
disciples of Christ were all of 
them inward and spiritual ; and 
when Jesus Christ said to them, 
It is expedient for you that I go 
away ; for if I go not away, 
the Comforter will not come un- 
to you; he intended thereby, 
to draw them off from that, 
which was sensible, though ve- 
ry holy, and to prepare their 
hearts to receive the fulness of 
the holy spirit, which he look- 
ed upon, as the one filing neces- 
sary. 

To prove, that our love to 
the Deity must be disinter 
fed, thrv allege, that the Lord 
hath mair ail things for him* 

* Bra vol. iL p. 



as saith the scripture ; and it 
is for his glory, that he wills 
our happiness. Our happiness 
is only a subordinate end, which 
he has made relative to the last 
and great end, which is his glo- 
ry. To conform, therefore, to 
the great end of our creation, 
we must prefer God to our- 
selves, and not desire our own 
happiness, but for his glory ; 
otherwise we shall go contrary 
to his order. As the perfec- 
tions of the Deity are intrinsic- 
ally amiable, it is our glory and 
perfection to go out of our- 
selves, to be lost and absorbed 
in the pure love of infinite 
beauty. See Mystics. 

Madam Guion, a woman of 
fashion in France, born (1648) 
was a warm advocate of these 
principles. She asserted that 
the means of arriving at this 
perfect love, arc prayer and 
the self-denial enjoined in the 
gospel. Prayer she defines to 
be the entire bent of the soul 
towards its divine origin. 

Fenelon, the excellent arch- 
bishop of Cambray, also fa- 
voured these sentiments in i 
celebrated publication, entitled. 
« The Maxims of the Saints." 
Hence arose a controversy be- 
tween him and Bossuet* bishop 
ofMeaux. The tenets object- 
ed by Bossuet to Fenelon may 
be reduced to two : i. That a 
person may attain an li 
stair of divine love, in which 
he loves Hod purely for his own 
sake, and without the slightest 
regard to his own interest; < 



RAB 



241 



RAC 



in respect of his eternal happi- 
ness : 2. That in such a state 
it is lawful, and may even be 
considered as an heroic effort 
of conformity to the divine will, 
to consent to eternal reproba- 
tion, if God should require such 
a sacrifice; the party which 
makes ^uch an act, conceiving 
at the moment, that such a sa- 
crifice is possible. 

It was objected to Fenelon,. 
that his doctrine elevated char- 
ity beyond human power, at 
the expense of the fear of God, 
and the hope of divine favour. 

On the habitual state of dis- 
interested divine love, the at- 
tainment of which was said to 
be inculcated in Fenelon's writ- 
ings, Fenelon himself uniform- 
ly declared his opinion that a 
permanent state of divine love, 
without hope, and without fear, 
was above the lot of man ; and 
Bossuet himself allowed that 
there might be moments, when 
a soul, dedicated to the love of 
God, would be lost in heavenly 
contemplation, and love, and 
adore without being influenced 
either by hope or fear, or being 
sensible of either. 

The controversy* between 



these great men was referred 
to the decision of the Roman 
Catholic church ; and in 1699, 
the pope issued a brief, by 
which twenty three proposi- 
tions, reducible to the two a- 
bove mentioned, were extract- 
ed from Fenelon's *'< Maxims 
of the saints" and condemned. 
Fenelon submitted to the deci- 
sion of the church. But his 
enemies were mortified by a 
bon mot of the pope, " that 
Fenelon was in fault for too 
great love of God ; and his 
enemies equally in fault, for too 
little love of their neighbour." 
QUINTILIANS, a branch 
of the Montanists, who derived 
their name from the prophetess 
Quintilia. Their distinguish- 
ing tenet was, that women ought 
to be admitted to perform the 
sacerdotal and episcopal func- 
tions ; grounding their practice 
on Gal. iii. 28. They added 
that Philip, the deacon, had 
four daughters, who were pro- 
phetesses, and were doubtless 
of their sect. In their assem- 
blies it was usual to see the 
virgins enter in white robes, 
personating prophetesses.f See 
Montanists* 



*RaBBINISTS, those Jew- ders. See Cabbalists. 
ish doctors, who admit the *RACOVIANS, atermsome- 
Cabbala, or traditions of the El- times applied to the Polish Uni- 

* For a particular account of the controversy between Bossuet and Fenelon, 
see also Cambray on Pure Love, p. 131—138. Lady Guion's Life and Letters, 
p. 167. Cowper's Translation of Guion's Poems* Chev. Railway's Life of 
Fenelon. Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 328. Butler's Life of Fenelon. 

f Hist, of Religion, vol. iv. Broughton, vol. ii. p. 310. 
31 



RAS 



242 



REF 



iarians, on account of their 
seminary at Racow, and of 
their adopting the Racovian 
catechism. See Soeinians. 

RANTERS, a denomination 
in the year 1645, who set up 
the light of nature, under the 
name of Christ in men. With 
regard to the church, scripture, 
ministry, &c. their sentiments 
were the same with the Seek- 
ers.^ See Seekers. 
*RASKOLNIKS, or Schis- 
matics, a general name for 
dissenters from the Russian 
established church ; but they 
call themselves Starovertsi, or 
believers of the old faith, be- 
cause they adhere to the old 
manuscript formularies of the 
Greek church, and reject the 
printed formularies of the patri- 
arch Nikon, who in the seven- 
teenth century revised the an- 
cient forms, and (as they say) 
corrupted them, and then had 
them printed by authority, for 
the use of the Russian establish- 
ment. It appears, however, 
that there were dissenters in 
Russia long prior to this period, 
and within four hundred and 
fifty years after the introduction 
of Christianity. These were 
called Strigolniks, (which see ;) 
hut the modern dissenters, 
(who partly arose out of these, 
in the time of Nikon.) are divid- 
ed into two principal classes, 
the Popoftclrins, and the Bezpfr 
poflchins. The former are di- 
vided into the Starabrnlsi. /)/>/- 
conoj'tcli'nis. Eprfanoflchins, and 

* Calamy'fl U>ridg < m <>f r. 
t Piiikerton's Greek Church. 

d. in Church Kcfbrmed. 



Tschunaboltsi, each of which is 
allowed a place in this Diction- 
ary. 

The Bezpopoftschins (who 
were omitted above) include 
no less than thirteen different 
sects, which either have no reg- 
ular priests, or refuse to ac- 
knowledge those ordained in the 
established church.f See Du- 
hobortis, Pomoryans, &c. 

^REALISTS; a party of the 
schoolmen, who conceive that 
universals are realities, and have 
an existence— a parte rex ; 
whereas the nominalists conceive 
of them only as ideas existing 
in the mind. Under the de- 
nomination of Realists were 
comprehended the Scotists and 
Thomists, aud all other sects of 
schoolmen, except the followers 
of Ocham. Among school-di- 
vines the term has been used to 
distinguish the orthodox Trini- 
tarians, from the sects account- 
ed heretical.:}: 

PREFORMED CHURCH. 
All the churches are considered 
by protectants as more or less 
reformed, who have separated 
from the church of Rome, but 
the term is more frequently ap- 
plied to the protcstant churches 
on the Calvinistic plan, to dis- 
tinguish them from Luther- 

ans.§ 

♦REFORMERS, a term usu- 
ally applied to those great and 
illustrious men, who introduced 
the reformation from popery in 
the sixteenth century, as Luther, 
Calvin, Ztiinglius, Sielancthon, 

p. 310. 
:ck's theolog. Diet. 



REL 



243 



REM 



and many others, whose senti- 
ments will be found under the 
denominations, which bear their 
respective names. 

The English reformers were 
the prelates and other eminent 
divines, who introduced the 
reformation into this country, 
under the reigns of Henry 
VIII, and Edward VI j and 
again under that of** Queen 
Elizabeth. Cranmer, Lati- 
mer and Ridley, who were put 
to death in the reign of Queen 
Mary, for their adherence to 
the protestant faith, held a dis- 
tinguished rank among the in- 
struments of the reformation in 
England. By them and Bish- 
op Jewel, the homilies and arti- 
cles of the church of England 
were drawn up. See English 

^REFUGEES, a term first 
applied to the protestants who 
fled from France, on the revo- 
cation of the edict of Nantz ; 
See Huguenots : but has been 
more recently applied to the 
French, who fled their country 
at the time of the revolution in 
that kingdom. 

^RELIEF KIRK, a denom- 
ination of dissenters from the 
Scotch establishment, so far 
only as respects the right of 
patronage; their congregations 
claiming the privilege of choos- 
ing their own ministers. This 
schism in the Scotch church 
was formed in 1752, when Mr. 
Gillespie was deposed from his 
living for refusing to sanction 
the ordination of a preacher 



who was disagreeable to his 
congregation. This exclusion 
served only to make him popu- 
lar, and being soon joined by 
several other ministers, who 
took part with him, tiiey form- 
ed the " Presbytery of Relief ;" 
and the denomination continu- 
ed increasing, until,*a few years 
since, they formed a synod, in- 
cluding about sixty congrega- 
tions, and thirty-six thousand 
members.* 

*RELLYANS, the followers 
of Mr. James Relly, who main- 
tained the doctrine of univer- 
sal restoration, upon high Cal- 
vinistic principles. Mr. Rel- 
ly first appeared as a preacher 
in connexion with Mr. Whit- 
field, and was very popular, but 
adopting the principles of uni- 
versal salvation, he was of 
course separated from the con- 
nexion, and some of his admir- 
ers followed him; and even 
lately, a remnant of them as- 
sembled at Philadelphia Chapel, 
in Windmill street, near Fins- 
bury square, London ; and have 
therefore been called by Mr. 
Evans, I Philadelphian univer- 
sal mts 

REMONSTRANTS; Ar- 
minians ; so called from a re- 
monstrance they addressed to 
the states general in 1610, in 
which they state their grievan- 
ces, and pray for relief. In the 
last century, disputes ran very 
high in Holland between Cal- 
vinists and Arminians. Epis- 
copius and Grotius were at the 
head of the party of the latter* 



* Adams' Religious World displayed, vol. ii'u p. 223. 



RHI 



244 



ROM 



In order to terminate this con- 
troversy, the famous synod of 
Dort was held, 1618, The 
most eminent divines of the 
united provinces, hoth of the 
Arminian and Genevan school : 
and deputies from many of the 
reformed churches in Europe 
were assembled on this occa- 
sion. This synod was succeed- 
ed by a severe persecution of 
the Arminians ; their doctrines 
were condemned ; and they 
driven from their churches and 
country into exile and poverty. 
The learned Grothis, who was 
condemned to perpetual impris- 
onment, escaped from his con- 
finement, and took refuge in 
France. An account of the 
proceedings of the synod may 
be seen in a series of letters, 
written by John Hales, who 
was present on the occasion. 
The reader is also referred 
to an abridgment of Gerard 
Brandt's History of the Refor- 
mation in the low countries, 
2 vols. 8vo. 

IlESTORATIONISTS. Sec 
Univcrsalisis. 

RUIN SBERGHERS, a par- 
ty of Meiiiionites, said to be 



unitarians, who attend the gen- 
eral meetings of the sect twice 
a year at Rhinsberg, near Ley- 
den. See Collegiates. 

ROGEREENS, so called 
from John Rogers, their chief 
leader. They appeared in New 
England about 1677. Their 
distinguishing tenet was, that 
worship performed the first day 
of the week is a species of idol- 
atry which they ought to op- 
pose ; and in consequence of 
this notion they used a variety 
of measures to disturb those 
who were assembled for pub- 
lic worship on the Lord's day.* 
ROMAN CATHOLICS, or 
members of the Church of 
Rome, otherwise c ailed Papiste, 
from the pope being admitted 
as the supreme head of the 
universal church, the successor 
of St. Peter, and the fountain 
of theological truth and ecclesi- 
astical honours. He gives bulls 
for the installing bishops and 
archbishops.f He lias power 
to convoke general councils ; 
to giant dispensations and in- 
dulgences ; to excommunicate 
offenders ; and to canonize:): 
those, whom the church deem 



Backus 9 Hist. vol. i. p 47o. Tliere is still remaining a small company of 

roton, near New London. Sec Benedict's Hist, of the Bap- 

ii. p. 426. 

f In some Roman Cath< , the sovereign nominates persons to bish- 

bul bulls from Rome are necessary to enable them 

Nations. 
i Canonization is Koniish church, by which persons de- 

of saints* 

mm to his cano'nizai fore that 

iry. Thes< 
ion of rites : 
lincations of t] re strictly 

that purpose. Atter this, the pop 
uony, and appoints the day. 



ROM 



245 



ROM 



worthy of that honour. His 
jurisdiction is not, like that of 
other bishops, confined to par- 
ticular countries, but extends 
through the whole body of Ro- 
man Catholics in the christian 
world.* He keeps his court in 
great state at the palace of the 
Vatican, and is attended by 
seventy cardinals, as his privy 
counsellors, in imitation of the 
seventy disciples of our Lord. 
The pope's authority in other 
kingdoms is merely spiritual, 
but in Italy he is a temporal 
sovereign ; Lewis XVIII and 
the allies having lately restored 
him to his throne* and to those 
temporalities of which he was 
deprived by Buonaparte and 
the French Revolution. On re- 
suming his government, pope 
Pious VII lias restored the or- 
der of Jesuits and the inquisi- 
tion ; so that the Roman Cath- 
olic religion is now re-instated 
in its ancient splendour and au- 
thority. 

The principal dogmas of this 
religion are as follow : — 

I. That St. Peter was deput- 
ed by Christ to be his vicar, 
and the head of the catholic 
church; and the bishops of 
Rome, being his successors, 
have the same apostolical au- 
thority. For our Saviour de- 
clares in Matt. xvi. 18. " Thou 
art Peter, and upon this rock 
will I build my church ;" by 
winch rock they understand St. 
Peter himself, as the name sig- 
nifies, and not his confession, 
as the protestants explain it. 
* This peculiarly distinguishes the 



And a succession in the church 
being now supposed necessary 
under the new testament, as Aa- 
ron had his succession in the 
old, this succession can now be 
shown only in the chair of St. 
Peter at Rome : therefore the 
bishops of Rome are his true 
successors. 

II. That the Roman Catho- 
lic church is the mother and 
mistress of all churches, and 
cannot possibly err in matters 
of faith : for the church has the 
Spirit of God to lead it into all 
truth ; The gates of hell shall 
not prevail against it Matt. xvi. 
18 ; and Christ, who is himself 
the Truth, has promised to the 
pastors and teachers of the 
church to be with them always, 
even to the end of the world. 
Matt, xxviii. 20. A promise 
which the protestants apply to 
the faithful in general, and not 
to any particular communion. 

III. That the scriptures are 
received upon the authority of 
the church ; but are not suffi- 
cient to our faith without apos- 
tolical traditions, which are of 
equal authority with the scrip- 
tures. For St. Peter assures 
us that, in St. Paul's epistles, 
there are some things hard to be 
understood, which they who are 
unlearned and unstable wrest, 
as they do also the other scrip- 
tures, to their own destruction. 
2 Pet. iii. 16. We are direct- 
ed by St. Paul to standfast and 
hold the traditions which toe have 

' been taughi, whether by word or 
by epistle. 2 Thess. ii. 15. 

bishop of Rome from other bishops. 



ROM 



246 



ROM 



IV. That seven sacraments 
were instituted by Jesus Christ; 
viz. baptism, cojifirmation, eu- 
charist, penance, extreme unc- 
tion, orders, and matrimony; 
and that they confer grace. — 
To prove that confirmation, or 
imposition of hands, is a sacra- 
ment, they argue from Acts viii. 
17. — Penance is a sacrament, in 
which the sins we commit after 
baptism are forgiven ; and which 
they think was instituted by 
Christ himself when he breath- 
ed upon his apostles after his 
resurrection. John xx. 22. In 
favour of extreme unction, or 
anointing the sick with oil, they 
argue from James v. 14, 15, the 
text as it is rendered in the Vul- 
gate : Is any sick among you ? 
Let him call for the priests of the 
church, iviid let them pray over 
him, anointing him with oil, &c. 
The sacrament of holy orders is 
inferred from 1 Tim. iv. 14 : — 
That marriage is a sacrament 
they think evident from Epli. 
\, 32 : This is a great mystery* 
representing the conjunction of 
Christ and his church. Not- 
withstanding this, they enjoin 
celibacy upon the clergy, be- 
cause they do not think it prop- 
er thai tltoSe who, by their of- 
fice and function, ought to he 
wholly devoted to Hod, should 
be diverted from those duties 
by the distraction of a manned 
life, i Cor. vii, 

V. That in the mass, or pub- 
lic e un- 
to God i 

rificcTorthcqmfck and d« 
and that in i imentofthe 



eucharist, under the forms of 
bread and wine, is really and 
substantially present the body 
and blood, together with the 
soul and divinity of our Lord 
Jesus Christ ; and that there is 
a conversion made of the whole 
substance of the bread into his 
body, and of the wine into his 
blood, which is called transub- 
stantiation; according to our 
Lord's words to his apostles, 
This is my body, &c. Matt. xxvi. 
26 j wherefore it becomes with 
them an object of adoration. 
Farther, it is a matter of dis- 
cipline, not of doctrine, in the 
Roman church, that the laity 
receive the eucharist in one 
kind ; that is in bread only. 

VI. That there is a purgato- 
ry ; and that souls kept prison- 
ers there do receive help by the 
suffrages of the faithful. For 
it is said in 1 Cor. iii. 15, if 
any man's work shall be burned, 
he shall suffer loss ; but he him- 
self shall be saved, yet so as by 
Jire ; which they understand of 
the flames of purgatory. They 
also believe that souls are re- 
leased from purgatory by the 
prayers and alms which are of- 
fered for them, principally by 
holy sacrifice 6f the mass. 
They call purgatory a middle 
state of souls, where those en- 
ter who depart this life in God's 
no! without some 
in, or guilt of punish- 
ment, which retards them fr 
entering heaven. 

VI!. That the saint 
ing with Christ, (and especially 
sed virgin,) are to be 



ROM 



247 



ROM 



honoured and invoked, and that 
they do offer prayers unto God 
for us ; and their relics to be 
had in veneration. These hon- 
ours, however, are not divine, 
but relative ; and redound to 
the divine glory. See Rev. v. 
8 ; viii. 4, &c. 

VIII. That the images of 
Christ, of the blessed virgin, 
(the mother of God,) and of oth- 
er saints, ought to be retained 
in churches ; and honour and 
veneration to be given to them, 
even as the images of cheru- 
bim were allowed in the most 
holy place. 

IX. That the power of indul- 
gences was left by Christ to the 
church, and that the use of 
them is very beneficial to chris- 
tian people ; according to St. 
Matt.xvi. 19. By indulgences 
they do not mean leave to com- 
mit sin, nor pardon for sins to 
come; but only releasing, by 
the power of the keys commit- 
ted to the church, the debt of 
temporal punishment, which 
may remain due upon account 
of our sins, after the sins them- 
selves, as to their guilt and 
eternal punishment, have been 
already remitted through re- 
pentance and confession ; and 



by virtue of the merit of Christ 
and of all the saints. 

The church of Rome receives 
the Apostles', the Nicene, and 
Athanasian creeds ; with all 
other things delivered, defined., 
and declared by the canons, and 
general councils, and particu- 
larly by the council of Trent, * 
which was convened in opposi- 
tion to the doctrines of Luther 
and Calvin ; since which time 
no general council has been 
held. 

The ceremonies of this church 
are numerous and splendid, as 
the sign of the cross, holy wa- 
ter, blessing of bells, incense 
and burning of wax tapers by- 
day light with the most splen- 
did vestments, and the most 
costly crucifixes of silver and 
gold, images and paintings, &c. 
They also observe a variety of 
holy days, as the festivals of 
Christ and of the saints, &c. 
The pope also grants a jubilee, 
i. e. a general indulgence, ev- 
ery twenty-fifth year, or often : 
er, upon special occasions. f 

That this is the general doc- 
trine of the Roman Catholic 
church will not be disputed, 
though there are many shades 
of difference according, to the 



• This council was convoked by Paul III, and assembled in 1546, and con- 
tinued by twenty-five sessions till the year 1563, under Julius III, and Pius VI, 
in order to correct, illustrate, and fill with perspicuity the doctrines of the 
ohurch, to restore the vigour of its discipline, and to reform the lives of its 
ministers The decrees of this council, together with the creed of pope Pi- 
us IV, contain a summary of the doctrines of the Roman Catholics. 

f See pope Pius' Creed. Bossuet's Exposition of the Catholic Creed, p. 62 
— 107. Challoner's True Principles of a Catholic. Gother's Papist, misrepre- 
sented and represented. Grounds of the Catholic Doctrine. Explication of 
the Sacrifice of the Mass, p. 22—35. Roman Catholic principle*. Brent's 
Council of Trent. 



ROM 



248 



ROM 



different degrees of light afford- 
ed in different countries or cir- 
cumstances j but the great car- 
dinal point of the catholic reli- 
gion appears to be implicitj'aith, 
or a steadfast determination to 
believe whatever is taught by 
the church or the highest eccle- 
tiastical authorities. It is said 
that according to this principle 
a correct creed is not of so much 
importance as a disposition at 
all times to submit our faith to 
authority, and to believe as the 
church believes, without exam- 
ination or demur. 

But the political opinions of 
the Catholics have been con- 
sidered of more importance to 
the welfare of protectant states, 
and in the general question of 
toleration. It has been said 
that the pope claims a dispens- 
ing power, as to oaths of alle- 
giance, and a paramount au- 
thority beyond all temporal 
powers. That the Jesuits and 
some other Catholic priests have 
taught this, and that some am- 
bitious popes have acted upon 
this principle, can hardly be de- 
nied ; but that those claims are 
How relinquished, and the right 
denied by intelligent Catholics, 
appears probable from the fol- 
lowing circumstances. 

In the fear 1788* when the 
committee of English Catho- 
lics waited rin Mr. Pitt res] 
tog their application to parlia- 



ment for a repeal of the penal 
laws,* he proposed several ques- 
tions " on the existence and 
extent of the pope's dispensing 
power, which were transmitted 
to the universities of Paris, 
Louvain, Alcala, Douay, Sala- 
manca, and Valledolid, and the 
following is said to be their 
unanimous reply. 

" I. That the pope, or car- 
dinals, or any body of men, or 
any individual of the church of 
Rome, has not any civil autho- 
rity, power, jurisdiction, or pre- 
eminence, whatsover, within the 
realm of England. 

** II. That the pope, or car- 
dinals, or any body of men, or 
any individual of the Church of 
Rome, cannot absolve or dis- 
pense his majesty's subjects 
jects from their oaths of alle- 
giance, upon any pretext what- 
soever. 

" III. That there is no prin- 
ciple in the tenets of the Cath- 
olic faith, by which Catholics 
are justified in not keeping faith 
with heretics, or other persons 
differing from them in religious 
opinions, in any transaction ei- 
ther of a public or a private na- 
ture." 

As to the persecution of her- 
( lies, it is admitted that for- 
merly this was held to be law- 
ful, not by Catholics only, but 
by all the sects in Christendom ; 
but that the Catholics now hold 



• The Catholic claims have undergone a discussion in the house of Lords, 
the result of which has bet n more Favourable to the hopes of that body, than any 

eeding which has yet taken place. On a motion for t 
the subject into early coi irliament, sixt , 

it, and seventy linst it, leaving" a minority of only four, 

rer, July 1816. 



ROS 



249 



RUS 



such opinion, they " most ex- 
plicitly deny f 9 and it is in gen- 
eral denied by all sects and 
parties, except among the most 
ignorant and illiberal. 

The number of Catholics in 
Great Britain is estimated at 
about eigiity eight thousand ; 
and in Ireland at about three 
millions to two of protestants. 
In the whole of Christendom the 
same writer estimates their 
number at about eighty mil- 
lions to sixty five millions of 
protestants.* 

*ROSECRUCIANS,certain 
hermetical philosophers, who, 
in the fourteenth century, form- 
ed a secret society, pretending 
to the knowledge of the philos- 
opher's stone, and other won- 
derful mysteries derived from 
the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and 
Magi. Among their most cel- 
ebrated professors they reckon 
Jacob Behmen, the mystic, Dr. 
Robert Fludd, an English phy- 
sician, and many others of ec- 
centric genius and learning, 
who blended the mysteries of 
alchymy, chemistry, and theol- 
ogy, into one system. The 
term Rosecrucian is of chemic- 
al derivation, from ros, dew, 
and crux, the cross ; because 
they considered dew as the 
chief solvent of gold, and the 
cross as an emblem of lux, the 
light, those letters being all 
formed out of the figure of a 
cross.f The Rosecrucians have 
been sometimes confounded with 



the free masons, who pretend al- 
so to mystic secrets. 

PRUSSIAN CHURCH. The 
Russians, like other nations, 
were originally Pagans, and 
worshipped fire, (which they 
considered as the cause of thun- 
der,) under the name of yenm? 
and the earth under the name 
volata ; at the same time, hav- 
ing some notions of a future 
state of rewards and punish- 
ments. Christianity was first 
professed by the Princess Olga, 
who was baptized at Constan- 
tinople. She recommended it 
to her grandson Vladimir, on 
whose baptism, in 988, it was 
adopted by the nation general- 
ly; and from that time the 
Greek church has been the es- 
tablished religion throughout 
Russia, and Greek literature 
greatly encouraged. During 
the middle ages, however, the 
doctrine of transubstantiation 
and some other popish peculia- 
rities were covertly introduc- 
ed ,• and, by the irruption of the 
Mongol Tartars, in the fifteenth 
century, a stop was put to learn- 
ing and civilization for full two 
centuries ; but on the accession 
of the present dynasty in 1613, 
civilization and Christianity 
were restored, and schools es- 
tablished for the education of 
the clergy. 

The Russian clergy are di- 
vided into regular and secular, 
the former are all monks, and 
the latter are the parochial 



* Adam's Religious World displayed, p. 1, &c— p. 54, 94. Butler's Ad* 
dress to protestants. 

f Mosbeim, vol. iv.p. 226. Ency. Perthensis, 



RUS 



250 



RUS 



clergy. The superiour clergy 
are called Arclnres, but the ti- 
tle oi Metropolitan, or Bishop, 
is personal, and not properiy 
attached to tlie see, as in the 
western church. N ext after the 
Archires rank the black clergy, 
including the chiefs of monas- 
teries and convents, and after 
them the Monks. The secular 
priests are called the xvhite 
clergy, including the Protoires 
(or proto-p>pes) priests and 
deacons, together with the Rea- 
ders and Sacristans. These 
amounted, in 1805, throughout 
the empire, to ninety eight thou- 
sand seven hundred and twen- 
ty six. The white clergy must 
be married before they can be 
ordained, but must not many a 
second time : but are at liberty 
then to enter among the black 
clergy, and a way is thus open- 
ed for their accession to the 
higher orders. The whole em- 
pire is divided into thirl sixdi- 
ocesses, (or eparchies,) in which 
are four hundred and eighty 
three cathedrals, and twenty 
six thousand ii\e hundred and 
ninety eight churches. 

The churches are divided into 
three parts ; 1 . the altar, w here 
stands the holy table, cruciiix, 
&C. which is separated from the 
body of the church by a large 
reen (ikpnostes) on which are 
painted our Saviour, the Virgin, 
the Apostles, and other saints. 
Upon a platform before this arc 
placed the readers and singers, 
and here the preacher general- 
ly sla; nd a moveable 
desk. 2. The Nave or body of 



the church, which may be call- 
ed the inner court : and 3. Tho 
Trapeza, or outer court : both 
these are designed for the con- 
gregation, but neither have any 
seats. The walls of the church 
are highly embellished with 
scripture paintings, ornament- 
ed with gold, silver, and pre- 
cious stones, but no images. 

The church service is con- 
tained in twenty volumes folio, 
in the Slavonian language, 
which is not well understood 
by the common people. Parts 
of the scriptures are read in the 
service ; but few, even of the 
ecclesiastics, possess a complete 
bible. 

The patriarch of Russia was 
formerly almost equal in au- 
thority with the Czar himself; 
but Peter the Great, on the 
death of the patriarch in 1700, 
abolished his office, and ap- 
pointed an Exarch. In 1721 
he abolished this office also, and 
appointed a " holy legislative 
synod'' for the government of 
the church, at the head of which 
is always placed a layman of 
rank and eminence. The mo- 
nastic life was once so preva- 
lent in tins country, that there 
were four hundred and seventy 
nine convents for men, and 
seventy four for women, in 
which there were about sev cnty 
thousand monks and nuns, fee : 
but this kind of life v\as so 
much discouraged by Peter the 
Great, and the Empress Cathe- 
rine, that the religious are now 
reduced to about five thousand 
monks and one thousand sev- 



SAB 



251 



SAR 



en hundred nuns ; a great part 
of their revenues has also been 
alienated, and appropriated to 
the support of hospitals and 
houses for the poor. For the 



doctrines of this communion, 
see the Greek Church : and for 
the principles of dissenters from 
it, see Raskolniks.* 



Sabbatarians, a de- 
nomination of christians, who 
keep the seventh day as the 
Sabbath, and are to be found 
principally, if not wholly among 
the baptists. The three fol- 
lowing propositions contain a 
summary of the grounds of their 
practice. 1 . That God has re- 
quired the observance of the 
seventh, or last day in every 
week, to be observed by man- 
kind universally for the week- 
ly Sabbath. 2. That this com- 
mand of God is perpetually 
binding on man till time shall 
be no more. 3. That this sa- 
cred rest of the seventh day 
Sabbath is not (by divine au- 
thority) changed from the sev- 
enth and last to the first day of 
the week, or that the scripture 
does no whei*e require the ob- 
servation of any other day of the 
week for the weekly Sabbath, 
but the seventh day only. 

Many of the Sabbatarians 
observe the first day of the 
week also, in conformity to the 
general custom of christians, 



founded (as should seem) on the 
practice of the apostles. See 
Acts xx. 7. 1 Cor. xvi. 2. Rev. 
i. 10. 

Some divines, however, con- 
ceive that the first day of the 
week was the original Sabbath ; 
that it was changed at the giv- 
ing of the law, and restored at 
the resurrection of Christ. The 
spirit of the command is sup- 
posed only to require a seventh 
day, however it is reckoned; 
and as the sun rises and sets at 
different hours in various cli- 
mates, it seems impossible that 
all nations should observe the 
same precise time, j 

There are two congregations 
of the Sabbatarians in London, 
one among the General Bap- 
tists, the other among the Par- 
ticular Baptists ; and a few are 
found in different parts of the 
kingdom. In America the Dun- 
kers and Keithians may be reck- 
oned of that class ; and the 
Abvssinians. and some mem- 
ber's of the Greek Church keep 
both the Sabbaths4 



* Pinkerton's Present State of the Greek Church in Russia, 8vo. 1814. 
f See Kennicot's Dissertation on Ca n and Abel, p. 184 

* Doddridge's Lectures Evans' Sketch, 12th ed p. 201 Cornthwaite's 
Tracts, publish' d about 1740. See also Chandler, Orton, Palmer, and Dr* 
Watts' Holiness of times and places* 



SAB 



25£ 



SAD 



*SABEANS, or SABiA*rs,the 
ancient inhabitants oi' Arabia, 
who worshipped the hosts of 
heaven (in Hei> . Sabbaoth) though 
at the same time they acknowl- 
edged a supreme Being, by 
whom they were created.* See 
Zabians. 

A sect in Ecclesiastical His- 
tory are called by the same 
name, whose creed is a com- 
pound of Judaism, Christian- 
ity, and Idolatry. Sec Men- 
dai. 

SABELLL1NS, the disci- 
pies of Sabellius, an African 
bishop (or presbyter) in the 
third century. He maintained 
that the Divine Essence sub- 
sisted in one person only, name- 
ly, the Father ; but that a cer- 
tain energy, or ray of divinity, 
was united to the man Jesus, and 
formed the character of the Son 
of God ; while a similar divine 
emanation — a celestial warmth 
— constituted the Holy Ghost. 
This they endeavoured to illus- 
trate by comparing God the 
Father to the material Sun, the 
Word, or Son of God, to the 
l»ght ; issuing therefrom, and the 
Holy Spirit to the heat emanat- 
i >g from the same source. His 
doctrine seems to differ from 
that of \oetus in this respect, 
thai the latter taught it was the 
one peraon of the Deity which 
acted under the three rel; 
characters, as Father, Sou, and 
Holy Spirit; the Creator, ttc- 



deemer, and Sanctifier of man- 
kind; whence his followers 
were reckoned Patri-passians : 
but not so the Sabellians, who 
preserved a sort of distinction 
between the sacred Three, tho* 
it was not personal. This sys- 
tem is called an economical or 
modal trinity, and its believers 
are called Modalists.] 

Sabellius had many followers 
during the age in which he liv- 
ed; and modifications of his doc- 
trines have subsisted in various 
succeeding denominations. It is 
said to be found in the creed of 
many of the general baptists in 
the principality of Wales. The 
Swedenborgians have also been 
charged with Sabellianism4 

SACOPHORI, i. e. persons 
who wear sackcloth, as certain 
christians affected to do in the 
fourth century, by way of pen- 
ance and mortification.^ 

*SACRAMENTARIANS, 
a term applied at the time of the 
reformation to all who denied 
the real presence in the sacra- 
ment. 

SADDUCEES, an ancient 
Jewish sect, said to be founded 
about three hundred years be- 
fore Christ, by one Sadoclu who 
is reported by tradition to have 
been the disciple of Antigonus 
Socho, president of the Santa* 
drim of Jerusalem. This cele- 
brated teacher inculcated apure 
and disinterested principle of 
obedience to God, independent 



• Eiicj . Perthensif* 

f Mftsheim, vol. ii p. 244. Watcrland on the Trinity, p. 385. 
i Adam's Religious World displayed. 

ligion, vol. iv. Art. Sacophor. 



SAM 



£5S 



SAM 



of rewards and punishments, 
from which some of his disci- 
ples interred that none were to 
be expected ; and hence the sect 
degenerated into infidelity ; and 
denied the being of angels and 
spirits, and, consequently, a fu- 
ture state. Acts xxiii. 8. 

Jt has been said that they re- 
jected all the sacred writings 
but those of Moses j and it is 
probable that some did so, but 
that this was not universally the 
case.* It is certain, indeed, 
that they rejected the traditions 
of the elders, and paid little 
attention to any religious forms. 
To make amends for this, how- 
ever, they were very strict in 
administering justice between 
man and man ; so much so, that 
some have derived the denomi- 
nation from the Hebrew word 
for justice, which is pi*. In 
their philosophy they were Ep- 
icureans or Materialists ; but 
did not admit of a resurrection : 
and were so far from Necessa- 
rians, that they were great advo- 
cates for the doctrine of free- 
will, and totally rejected that 
of divine influences.! The his- 
tory of the Sadducees may be 
traced down to the middle ages, 
and there are still said to be 
some remains of this sect in 
Africa. See Jews. 

SAMARITANS, the inhabi- 
tants of Samaria, but chiefly 
the Cuthites, whom the kings 
of Assyria sent from beyond the 



Euphrates to people that colin- 
try after they had carried a- 
way captive the children of Is- 
rael. The Samaritans, being 
a mixed multitude, at first wor- 
shipped Jehovah in connexion 
with their former idols, (2 Kings 
xvii. 24 — 33.) until a Jewish 
priest was sent to instruct them. 
At length Alexander the Great 
permitted them to build a tem- 
ple on mount Gerizim, in op- 
position to that of Jerusalem. 
John iv. 20. Sanballat, the 
governour, made Menasses, 
the son of Juddua, high priest, 
and from this time they main- 
tained, that this was the place 
where men ought to worship. 
This created an enmity between 
the two nations, which has nev- 
er subsided to this day. 

When Men asses was made 
high priest, he taught the Sa- 
maritans to worship the true 
God only according to the Mo- 
saic institutions ; and from this 
period they renounced idolatry 
and were considered a sect of 
the Jewish religion. 

The Samaritans receive only 
the pentateuch, (or five books 
of Moses,) and their copy dif- 
fers materially from that of the 
Jews in some chronological 
dates ; it has also some repeti- 
tions and elucidatory passages, 
but the most material differ- 
ence is thatinDeut. xxvii. 12, 
13. they have transposed the 
names Ebal and Gerizim to 



Seal- 



* Prideaux's Connection. Anno. 107. Basnage's Hist. lib. 2, cap. 5. 
iger Elench Triher, cap. 16 

f Prkleaux's Connect Anno. 446. Lamy and Beausobre's Introdnct. Cal- 
met's Diet. vol. ii. new ed. Stackhouse's Hist, of the Bible, 8vo. vol. v. p. 118. 



SAM 



254 



SAM 



favour their schismatic temple ; 
it is also written in the Sama- 
ritan character, which some 
suppose to be the ancient He- 
brew, but on this the learned 
are much divided. 

The Samaritans have been, 
like the Jews, dispersed in va- 
rious countries ; but for a long 
time their chief residence has 
been Naplouse, the ancient 
Sichem. As late as 1808, we 
learn from authentic docu- 
ments^ that they still continue 
at Naplouse. They inhabit old 
deserted houses in a bad part 
of the city ; and live in the most 
abject poverty. Those whose 
condition is most tolerable are 
in the service of the chief of the 
country, which employment just 
affords them bread. The oth- 
ers endeavour to gain it by in- 
dustry ; many of them keep 
shop, and live by petty com- 
merce. 

The Samaritans, like the 
Jews of the East, eat only of 
the ifrsh of animals, killed by 
one of their own sect, and with 
certain formalities. They are 
separated from the Jews, Turks 
and Christians, and form no 
alliances with them. If they 
are forced in their employment 
to touch ii stranger, or his gar- 
ments they purify themselves as 

soon us possible. The dead are 



considered as impure, and they 
cause them to be buried by the 
Turks and Christians. They 
consider themselves to be true 
Israelites of the tribe of Jo- 
seph ; and say that their law 
is written in the true Hebrew 
language. They have a priest 
ol ihe race of Levi, but no 
iman or grand pontiff. They 
say, that ttiey have not had any 
priests of the race of Aaron for 
one hundred and fifty years 
past. 

The Samaritans celebrate the 
first day of the passover at mid- 
night; a sheep is killed in the 
synagogue, roasted and eaten 
there. Since the year 1788 they 
have not been able to repair to 
mount Gerizim for worship ; 
but have offered their sacrifices 
in the city Naplouse, which, 
they say, " is comprised in the 
chosen place.' 5 According to 
their account, there are no Sa- 
maritans in the East, excepting 
at Naplouse and Jaffa. These 
amount to two hundred per- 
sons, men, women, and chil- 
dren, composing thirty families. 
These are extremely exact in 
their observance of the ceremo- 
nies prescibcd by Moses : and 
have preserved their pentateuch 
with the utmost care.f 

*S VMM A\S,Scn vM\\s,or 
Shamans, (as the first letter is 



* The celebrated GregfOire applied to the Consul of Aleppo for information 
the Samaritans of Naplouse, who obtained from the chief of the 
I Arabic, which was translated into the French by 
I , lenior consul ol' Prance, 

f Cahnefs Dictionary, vol. ii. new cd. vol. iv. o^<)__4f;tf . V ol. v. .310. Stack- 
I he liible. Qregoire'fl Uibtoire J)es Scctes Heligieuses. Tom. ii. 
>, Sec. 



SAM 



£55 



SAM 



differently pronounced,) were 
originally worshippers of the 
heavens, (inHeb. Shemim 9 J and 
the heavenly bodies. Such were 
the ancient Chaldeans, Syrians, 
and Canaanites, whose idol was 
Baal-Samen, or El-Samen, the 
Lord or God of heaven, by 
which they meant the sun ; and 
they had a city and temple, call- 
ed Beth-Shemesh, the city or 
temple of the sun, whose He- 
brew name is Shemesh. 

From these Sammans seem 
to have sprung the Sammanes, 
an ancient sect of philosophers 
in India, from whom Dr. Priest- 
ley thinks the Hindoo religion 
was originally derived. " The 
Sammanians (or Sammans) be- 
ing persecuted by the Bramins, 
and driven by them out of India 
Proper, are thought to have 
taken refuge in Pegu, Siam, and 
other countries beyond the Gan- 
ges ; and it is supposed that the 
religion of those countries was 
derived from their principles. 
The religion of the Lamas in 
Tibet is also said to be a re- 
formed Schamanisin. See Thi- 
betians. And from the same 
source this author, with great 
probability, derives the modern 
Schamans of Siberia. 

" The people are at present 
described as wholly illiterate ; 
hut their predecessors are said 
to have written many books on 
philosophy and religion. They 
believe in one God, the maker 
of all things ; but they think 
that he pays no attention to the 
affairs of men, leaving the gov- 
ernment of the world to inferi- 



our beings, to whom, therefore, 
all their devotions are address- 
ed. Both the celestial bodies* 
and all terrestrial objects of con* 
siderable magnitude, are objects 
of worship to them ; though some 
of them only believe that moun- 
tains, and great bodies of water, 
are the habitation of the gods, 
and not themselves animated. 
They have, however, a great 
variety of subordinate deities, 
whom they invoke for different 
purposes, viz. one for health, 
another for their cattle, another 
when they travel, another for 
the women, another for their 
children, another for their rein- 
deer, &c. Ace. thinking that par- 
ticular spirits preside over and 
have the care of them. But 
though they have goddesses, as 
well as gods, they do not be- 
lieve that they are married. 
These spirits, they suppose, ap- 
pear to their priests in the form 
of bears, serpents, or owls; and 
on this account they have a 
particular respect for those an- 
imals. 

M Besides these deities of a 
nature superiour to man, the 
Siberians worship the manes of 
their ancestors, and especially 
of the settlers of colonies, whom 
they regard as demi-gods. 

" They not only suppose that 
there are superiour beings of 
very different dispositions, some 
friendly and others unfriendly 
to men, but think the best dis- 
posed of them are sometimes 
partial, obstinate, and vindic- 
tive : and over the malevolent 
deities they place one of much 



SAM 



256 



SAN 



superiour power, whom they 
call Scaitan. But though he is 
very wicked, they think it pos- 
sible to appease him, and there- 
fore much of their worship is 
addressed to him. 

" They have no temples, but 
perform their religious rites in 
the open air, on eminences, or 
the banks of rivers. In some 
places their religious ceremo- 
nies are performed at any hour 
of the day indifferently ; but 
generally during the night, by 
the light of a fire, kindled for 
the purpose. 

" They have idols of stone 
or wood, having some rude re- 
semblance of the human form, 
and they pretend to feed them, 
smearing their faces with blood 
and grease. By way of incens- 
ing them, they make a smoke 
with burning flesh, blood, or 
boughs of fir and wormwood 
before them. But when mis- 
fortunes befall them, they load 
them with abuse, sometimes 
dash them against the ground, 
throw them into the water, or 
beat them with rods. 

" Man they believe to be 
compounded of soul and body ; 
and lhat immediately after 
death the soul passes into anoth- 
er state of existence; which, 
however* most of them think to 
he at least but a very uncom- 
fortable one, and therefore they 
have a great dread of death/' 3 * 



*SAMOKRESTSCHENTSI, 

or self-baptizers, a small sect 
in Russia, who separated from 
the church. They baptize 
themselves, under an idea that 
no other persons are sufficient- 
ly pure to perform the rite for 
tliem.f 

SANDEMANIANS. This 
denomination arose in Scotland 
about the year 1728, and was 
originally called Glassites, (see 
that term above,) but after- 
wards Sandemanians from the 
following circumstance. 

Soon after the year 1755, 
Mr. Robert Sandeman, an el- 
der in one of these churches in 
Scotland, published a series of 
letters addressed to Mr. James 
Hervey, occasioned by his The- 
ron and Arpasio, in which he 
endeavours to show that his no- 
tion of faith is contradictory to 
the scripture account of it ; and 
would only serve to lead men, 
professedly holding the doc- 
trines called Calvinistic, to es- 
tablish their own righteousness 
upon their frames, feelings, and 
acts of faith. The leading sen- 
timents which Mr. Sandeman 
endeavours to prove in these 
letters, arc as follow : 

I. That justifying faith is no 
more than a simple belief of the 
truth, or the divine testimony 
passively received. 

II. That this divine testimo- 
ny carries in itself sufficient 



• Hoi well's Mythological Diet. p. 383* Priestley's Institutions of Moscn 
an«l tli 3 Hindoos, p. 105. imdTook&'fl Kuss'kj, (from whom lie quotes,) Introduc- 
tion. 

| Pjnkerton's Greek Church, p. SZU 



SAN 



257 



SAN 



ground of hope, and occasion of 
joy, to every one, who believes 
it, without any thing wrought in 
us, or done by us, to give it a 
particular direction to our- 
selves. 

To support this system, the 
Sandemanians allege, that faith 
is called receiving the love of the 
truth; and the apostle often 
speaks of faith and truth to the 
same purpose, as in John xvi. 13. 
The spirit of truth; 2 Cor. iv. 13. 
The spirit of faith ; Acts vi. 7. 
Obedient to the faith ; 1 Pet. i. 
22. In obeying the truth; and di- 
vers other passages. The scrip- 
tures consider faith, not as a 
work of ours, nor as any action 
exerted by the human mind ; but 
set it in direct opposition to ev- 
ery work, whether of body or 
mind. See Rom. iv. 4, 5. This 
contrast excludes every idea of 
activity in the mind, from the 
matter of justification ; so that 
we cannot speak of preparatory 
works of any sort, without mak- 
ing the gospel a law of works. 
Rom. iii. 27. Where is boasting 
then ? It is excluded, &c. Now 
boasting cannot be excluded, if 
any thing, done by us, sets us in 
a more probable way of obtain- 
ing the salvation, which is of 
grace, whether it be called by 
the names of a law work, seri- 
ous exercise of seeking souls, or 
labouring to obtain an interest 
in Christ, &c. 

Every doctrine, then, which 
teaches us to do, or endeavour, 
any thing towards our accept- 
ance with God. stands opposed 
to the dootrine of the apostles. 



which, instead of directing us 
what to do, sets before us all, 
that the most disquieted con- 
science can require in order to 
acceptance with God, as alrea- 
dy done and finished by Jesus 
Christ. 

Some of u the popular preach- 
ers," as they were called, had 
taught that it was of the es- 
sence of faith, to believe that 
Christ is ours : but Mr. San- 
deman contended, that that 
which is believed in true faith 
is the truth, and what would 
have been the truth, though we 
had never believed it. They 
invited sinners to repent and 
believe in Christ in order to 
forgiveness ; but he maintain- 
ed, that the gospel contained 
uo offer but that of evidence ; 
but that it was merely a re- 
cord or testimony to be credit- 
ed. They had taught that though 
acceptance with God (which in- 
cluded the forgiveness of sins) 
was merely on account of the im- 
puted righteousness of Christ ; 
yet that no one was forgiven, 
or accepted of God, till he re- 
pented of his sin, and received 
Christ by faith ; but he insists 
that there is acceptance with 
God for sinners, while such, 
before " any act, exercise, or 
exertion of their minds what- 
sover ;" and that, " a passive 
belief of this quiets the guilty 
conscience, begets hope, and so 
lays the foundation for love." 

The authors, to whom Mr. 
Sandeman refers under the ti- 
tle of « popular preachers," are 
Flavel, Boston, Guthrie, the 



SAN 



258 



SAN 



Erskines, &c. These he has 
treated with great acrimony and 
contempt. Yet some of the wri- 
ters, who have vindicated these 
ministers from his invectives, 
have acknowledged that he has 
pointed out many blemishes in 
their writings. Others have en- 
deavoured to show, that Mr. 
Sandeman's notion of faith, by 
excluding all concurrence of the 
will with the gospel plan of sal- 
vation, -confounds the faith of 
devils with that of christians, 
and is calculated to deceive the 
souls of men. It has also been 
observed, that though Mr. San- 
deman admits of the acts of faith 
and love, as fruits of believing 
the truth, yet " all his godli- 
ness consisting (as he acknowl- 
edges,) in love to that which first 
relieved him," it amounts to 
nothing but self-love. 

The principal practices in 
which this denomination differ 
from the generality of other 
christians are as follow : 

They administer the Lord's 
supper every Sabbath ; for they 
look upon the christian Sabbath 
as designed for the celebration 
of divine ordinances, which arc 
summarily comprised in Acts 
ii. 49.. Thej make weekly col- 
lections before' I he Lord's sup- 
per, for the support of the poor, 

and defraying other exp&naos. 
In the interval between their 
morning and afternoon service, 
they have their love feapts, of 
which every member is requir- 
ed to partake, to testify they 
arc all brethren of one (family. 

They allege, that these love 



feasts were not laid aside by St. 
Paul's writing to the Corinthi- 
ans ; but enjoined to be observ- 
ed in a right manner, and the 
abuses of them corrected ; and 
they continued in practice while 
the primitive profession of broth- 
erly love remained among the 
ancient christians ; and as cliar- 
ity neverfaUeth, (1 Cor. xiii. 8,) 
so neither should any of the 
duties or expressions of it be 
allowed to fail. 

At their love feasts, and on 
the admission of a new mem- 
ber, and on other occasions, 
they use the kiss of charity, or 
the saluting each other with an 
holy kiss, a duty this denomi- 
nation believe expressly enjoin- 
ed, Rom. xvi. 16 ; and in 
1 Cor. xvi. 20. They also prac- 
tise washing each other's feet ; 
for which usage they allege 
John xiii. 14, 15. 

They hold to community of 
goods, so far as that every one 
is to consider all that he has in 
his possession and power lia- 
ble to the calls of the poor and 
of the church ; and maintain 
the unlawfulness of laying up 
treasures on earth, by setting 
them apart for any distant, fu- 
ture, or uncertain use. 

They allow of public and 
private diversions so far as 
they are not connected with 
circumstances really sinful ; 
hut apprehending a lot to be 
Barred, disapprove of lotteries, 
playing at cards, dice, &C 

They have a plurality of el- 
ders, pastors or bishops, in each 
church. In the choice of these 



SAT 



259 



SCE 



led themselves patriarchs, pro- 
phets, and an gels, f 

SATURNIANS, an obscure 
sect which arose about the year 
115, and derived their name 
from Saturninus of Antioch, 
one of the Gnostic chiefs, whose 
notions coincided with those of 
Basilides and other Gnostics. 
See Basilidians.\ 

*SCHAITES, or Schiites, 
those Mahometans which con- 
sider AH Taleb as the true 
I man. See Mahometans. 

*SCHAMANISM. See Sam- 
mans. 

SCEPTICS. This sect de- 
rive their name from the Greek 
verb ncsTTTopctt, to consider, from 
their leading character, which 
is, to hesitate and call in ques- 
tion the truth of every opinion, 
and maintain that every thing 
is uncertain. 

The original design of the 
sceptic philosophy was to com- 
pare external phenomena with 
mental conceptions, in order to 
discover their inconsistency, 
and the consequent uncertainty 
of all reasoning from appear- 
ances : — to cure that restless- 
ness which attends the unsuc- 
cessful search after truth, and 
by means of an universal sus- 
pension of judgment to estab- 
lish mental tranquillity. Its 
fundamental principle is, that 
to every argument, an argu- 

* Glasse's Testimony of the King of Martyrs. Sandeman's Letters on The- 
ron and Arpasio, vol. i. p» 16. vol. ii. p. 38. Bellamy's Nature and Glorv of 
the Gospel, London edition. See the notes, p 65 — 126. Backus' Discourse on 
Faith and its Influence, p 7 — 30. Fuller on Sandemanianism. Scotch Theol. 
Diet. &c. 

t Broughton's Hist. Lib. vol. i. p. 369. 

\ Mosheim, vol. i. p. 176. Lardner's Heretics, p. 71. 



ciders, want of learning and 
engagement in trade are no 
sufficient objections, if qualifi- 
ed according to the instruc- 
tions given by Paul to Timo- 
thy and Titus ; but second mar- 
riages disqualify for the office. 
Their discipline is very strict, 
and they think themselves o- 
bliged to separate from the 
communion and worship of all 
such religious societies, as ap- 
pear to them not to profess the 
simple truth for their only 
ground of hope, and who do 
not walk in obedience to it. 
Moreover, in their church 
proceedings, they are not gov- 
ernedby majorities, and esteem 
unanimity to be absolutely nec- 
essary. With excommunicat- 
ed members they hold it unlaw- 
ful either to eat or drink.* 

Mr. Sandeman came to New 
England, and settled a society 
at Boston, D anbury, &c. He 
died in America 1772. 

SATANIANS, so called, it 
is said, because they taught that 
since Satan, or the devil, was 
extremely powerful, and full of 
mischief, it was wise to pay him 
some respect, in order to con- 
ciliate him. They are suppos- 
ed to have been a branch of the 
Messalians, about the year 390. 
They possessed no goods, lived 
by begging, and lay in the 
streets. It is reported they cal- 



SCE 



260 



SCE 



Hient of equal weight may be 
applied,* 

The sceptic does not deny that 
he can see, hear, or feel ; but 
he maintains that the inferences 
which philosophers have drawn 
from the reports of the senses 
are doubtful ; and that any gen- 
eral conclusion, deduced from 
appearances, may be overturn- 
ed by reasonings equally plau- 
sible with those by which it is 
supported. 

Pyrrho, a Greek philosopher 
of Peloponnesus, (about 300 
years before Christ,) was the 
founder of this sect, but it ob- 
tained no great popularity till 
the time of the Roman Empe- 
rors. His object was rather to 
destroy other systems, than to 
establish a new one. He as- 
serted nothing positively j even 
on the point of morals he doubt- 
ed, because he could not certain- 
ly discriminate between good 
and evil, or indifferent. 

Many of his early followers 
chose to shelter themselves un- 
der the name of Academics, 
who (especially the disciples of 
Carneades) were much inclined 
to scepticism ; only they did 
admit certain degrees of proba- 
bility, which the others reject- 
ed. The Academics allowed 
that nothing (except mathemat- 
ical science) could be known 
with certainty ; but the Pyrr- 
honists were not certain even 
of this : and so fond were they 
of doubting, that they even 
doubted their only position, that 



every thing was doubtful. In 
the common business of life, 
however, it is said, they were 
too wise to act upon this prin- 
ciple. 

The celebrated Mons.Bayle, 
author of the Historical and 
Critical Dictionary, who was 
born in 1647, has been con- 
sidered as one of the most pow- 
erful advocates for scepticism 
among the moderns. He was 
educated a protestant, and early 
in hie gave proofs of superiour 
genius. But while he attended 
the Jesuits' college at Toulouse, 
the reading of controversial 
books, and the conversation of 
a popish priest, led him to em- 
brace the Roman catholic re- 
ligion, which in eighteen months 
after he renounced, and then 
became a sceptic, without any 
fixed system of opinions. 

Mr. Hume, the English his- 
torian, makes a distinguished 
figure also among the modern 
sceptics. The chief aim of his 
philosophical writings is to in- 
troduce doubt in every branch 
of physics, mctaphysics,history, 
ethics, and theology. "There 
is," says this celebrated author, 
" a species of scepticism, antece- 
dent to study and philosophy, 
which is much inculcated by 
Des Cartes and others, as ft 
sovereign preservative against 
error and precipitate judgment 
It recommends an universal 
doubt, not only of our former 
principles and opinions, but al- 
so oi our very faculties; of 



• Gale's Court of the 
p. 489* 



Gentiles. Enfield's Hist, of Philosophy, vol. 



SCH 



261 



SCO 



whose veracity we must assure 
ourselves by a chain of reason- 
ing, deduced from some origi- 
nal principles, which cannot be 
fallacious or deceitful."* 

SCHEWENKFELDIANS, 
a denomination so called from 
Gasper Schewenkfeldt, a Sile- 
sian knight in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. He differed from Luther 
in the three following points. 
1. On the doctrine of the eu- 
charist; Schewenkfeldt invert- 
ed the words of Christ, This is 
my body ; and insisted on their 
being thus understood: My body 
is this, i. e. such as this bread, 
which is broken and consumed ; 
a true and real food, which 
nourisheth, satisfieth, and de- 
lighteth the soul. My blood is 
this ; its effects are like those 
of wine, which strengthens and 
refreshes the heart. 2. He de- 
nied that the external word, 
which is the holy scriptures, 
was endowed with the power of 
healing, illuminating, and re- 
newing the mind : and he as- 
cribed this power to the inter- 
nal word, which, according to 
his opinion, was Christ him- 
self. 3. He would not allow 
Christ's human nature, in its 
exalted state, to be called a 
creature, or a created sub- 
stance ; as this appeared to 
him infinitely below its digni- 
ty, after it had been united to 
the divine essence.f 

^SCHOOLMEN, a sect of 
men in the twelfth, thirteenth, 



and fourteenth centuries, who 
were versed in the subtilties of 
academical disputation. The 
philosophy and metaphysics of 
Aristotle principally contribut- 
ed to the formation of the 
scholastic theology. Thomas 
Aquinas, who flourished in the 
thirteenth century, was emi- 
nently distinguished among the 
schoolmen. His writings on 
theology are held in high esti- 
mation by the Roman catholic 
church, and his authority has 
always been great in their 
schools. He was canonized by 
pope John XXII, in the year 
1323. He founded the sect of 
the Thomists4 See that ar- 
ticle. 

SCOTCH BAPTISTS. It 
does not appear that there were 
any Baptist churches in Scot- 
land till the year 1783, (except 
one,) of which some traces re- 
main in a book, entitled, " A 
confession of the several con- 
gregations of churches of Christ 
in London, which are common- 
ly, though unjustly, called Ana- 
baptists, printed in 1653." 

In 1786, all the Baptist 
churches in Scotland were a- 
greed in their religious senti- 
ments and practices, but of late 
years various classes of this de- 
nomination have sprung up in 
this part of the united kingdom, 
who have no connexion with 
the original societies, nor in- 
deed with one another, but have 
formed themselves into separ- 



r 



* Hume's Essays, vol. iv. p. 210. f Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 32. 

* Ruck's Theological Diet. Knox's Essays, vol. i.p. 28L 



SCO 



262 



SCO 



ate and distinct parties. In 
1809, there were fifteen Bap- 
tist churches in Scotland ,• and 
their number of late years have 
considerably increased. In En- 
gland and Wales there are a 
few churches, and smaller so- 
cieties who are of the same 
faith and order with the ma- 
jority of their brethren in Scot- 
land, and consequently distinct 
from the two great bodies, 
known by the names of Gener- 
al and Particular Baptist. 

Many of the Scotch Baptists, 
among whom is a church in 
Edinburgh, formed in the year 
1765, have adopted some of the 
peculiar sentiments of Mr. San- 
deman. Like him, they re- 
ject every doctrine, how much 
soever it may be qualified, and 
refined, which makes a sin- 
ner's acceptance with God in 
any respect to depend upon his 
own virtuous actions, his good 
dispositions, his devotional ex- 
ercises, or his endeavours to 
prepare and qualify himself for 
being made a partaker of Christ, 
they suppose faith signifies sim- 
ply believing or giving credit 
to the divine record. They 
have also adopted many of the 
usages of the Sandemanians, as 
observing the lovci feasts, the 
kiss of charity, and partaking 
of the Lord's supper every first 
day of the week. &€• 

The Scotch Baptists reject 
creeds, liturgies* and confes- 
sions of faith, and acknowledge 
no standard of faith and prac- 
tice among Christians, except 
divine revelation itself, and 



think themselves justified by 
this one consideration, that 
while there is a perfect and in- 
fallible standard, by which, if 
it be really followed, neither 
churches nor individuals can be 
led astray ; it is equally unrea- 
sonable and dangerous to cou- 
ple with it one, which, in the 
nature of things, must be im- 
perfect. Aside from the er- 
roneous doctrines contained in 
confessions of faith, they dis- 
approve of them, because they 
are used as standards or tests 
in addition to the word of God, 
and consequently are engines 
to cramp, or circumscribe, all 
further advancement in the 
knowledge of divine truth, yet 
they are by no means satisfied 
with a general acknowledgment 
that the bible is the word of 
God, and an infallible stand- 
ard. They maintain that the 
sense in which a man under- 
stands the scriptures, consti- 
tutes his faith ; and therefore 
they have no communion with 
those who do not profess agree- 
ment with them in their sense 
of scripture, with respect to ev- 
ery thing they deem essential 
to their faith and order. 

The teachers among the 
Scotch Baptists are ranked 
among their brethren, without 
attempting to form themselves 
into a separate class ; and the 
official character which they 
sustain, gives them no pre-em- 
inence whatever in a worldly 
point of view. Their churches, 
like most of those 4 of the other 
Baptists, maintain close com- 



SEC 



26S 



SEC 



munion. The discipline and 
government of their churches 
are strictly congregational.* 

*SCOTISTS, the followers of 
Duns Scotus, a Cordelier, who 
maintained the immaculate con- 
ception of the Virgin Mary, 
in opposition to Aquinas and 
the Thomists.f 

SECEDERS, a numerous 
body of Presbyterians in Scot- 
land, who adhere to the doc- 
trine and discipline of their an- 
cestors, and maintain the bind- 
ing obligation of the Scotch 
covenant, and of the solemn 
league and covenant of the 
three nations.]: They always 
have declared that they did not 
secede from the principles of 
the church of Scotland, as they 
are represented in her confes- 
sion of faith, catechisms, longer 
and shorter, directory for wor- 
ship, and form of presbyterian 
government ; but only from her 
present judicatories, who, they 
suppose, have departed from 
her true principles. A sermon 
preached by Mr. Ebenezer Ers- 
kine, of Stirling, at the opening 
of the synod of Perth and Stir- 
ling, gave rise to this party. 
In this discourse he boldly tes- 
tified against what he supposed 
corruptions in the national 



church ; for which freedom the 
synod voted him censurable, 
and ordered him to be rebuked 
at their bar. He, and three 
other ministers, protested a- 
gainst this sentence, and ap- 
pealed to the next assembly. 
The assembly approved of the 
proceedings of the synod, and 
ordered Mr. Erskine to be re- 
buked at their bar. He refus- 
ed to submit to the rebuke; 
whence he and his brethren 
were suspended from the minis- 
try, after which they seceded 
from the national church. They 
were joined by others ; and the 
ministers and their elders who 
declared their secession from 
the national church, did in 1736 
constitute themselves into an 
ecclesiastical court, which they 
called the Associate Presbytery. 
In 1745, the seceding minis- 
ters were become so numerous, 
that they were erected into 
three different presbyteries, un- 
der one synod. In 1 747, through 
a difference in civil matters, 
they were divided into burghers 
and anti-burghers. Of these 
two classes, the latter are the 
most rigid in their sentiments, 
and associate therefore the 
least with any other body of 
christians.^ 



* \dam's Religious World displayed, toI. iii. p. 233. Sketch of the Church 
order and Social Religious Practices of the original Baptist Church in 
Edinburgh. f Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 360, new ed. 

$ The national covenant in Scotland is an engagement which was entered 
into by all ranks of persons soon after the Reformation. The solemn league 
and covenant is an oath, which in 1643 was taken by persons of all ranks in 
the three kingdoms ; it was intended to bring about an uniformity in doctrine, 
discipline, and worship. » 

§ Marshal's Catechism, Evans' Sketch, p« T8. Brown's rise and progress 
of the Secession, Scotch Theolog. Diet. 



SEE 



S64 



SEM 



Both classes of the Seced- 
ers, and the Relief Kirk, in- 
cluding, in 1811, about three 
hundred ministers in Scotland, 
are strict Presbyterians, not- 
withstanding their secession or 
dissent from the Scotch estab- 
lishment. 

SEC UNDIANS, the follow- 
ers of Secundus, a disciple of 
Valentine. See Valentinians. 

SEEKERS, a denomination 
which arose in the year 1645. 
They derived their name from 
their maintaining that the true 
church, ministry, scripture, and 
ordinances were lost, for which 
they were seeking. They taugh t 
that the scriptures were obscure 
and doubtful — that present mi- 
racles were necessary to war- 
rant faith — that the ministry of 
modern times is without author- 
ity — and their worship vain and 
useless. * 

*SEEKS, a religious sect at 
Patna in India, being a sort of 
Hindoo deists — differing from 
both the Mahometans and the 
worshippers of Brahma. Mr. 
AVilkins describes them as a 
very harmless people, founded 
hy one Naneck Sak, about four 
centuries ago. He wrote a 
book of his principles in verse, 
inculcating the doctrines of one 
supreme omnipresent Being, 
and of a future state of rewards 
and punishments. It enjoins 
all the moral virtues, particu- 
larly philanthropy and hospi- 



tality. They have a kind oi 
chapel, in which the priests 
chant their liturgy, with drums 
and cymbals, the people joining 
in responses. They have a kind 
of love feast connected with 
their worship, consisting of 
sweetmeats and sugarplumbs. 
Their language is a mixture of 
the Persian, Arabic, and San- 
scrit, grafted on the Moorish 
tongue. The term Seeks, (from 
a word signifying learn thou,J 
intimates that they are inquir- 
ers after truth . They are of- 
ten confounded with the nation 
of Seiks, in Lahore.f 

SELEUCIANS, disciples of 
Seleucus, a philosopher of Ga- 
latia, who, about the year 
380, adopted the sentiments of 
Hermogenes. See Hermoge- 
iiecins* 

SEMBIANI, so called from 
Sembianus, their leader, who, 
it is said, condemned all use of 
wine as evil in itself — pretend- 
ed that wine was a production 
of satan and the earth ; den'ed 
the resurrection, and reject* d 
most of the books of the old 
testament4 

SEMI-ARIANS, so called 
because they held the opinions 
of the Arians in part only, al- 
lowing to Christ the highest 
rank next to God the Father. 
The orthodox contended tin t 
the Son was opoavrits, of the 
sain* substance with the Father; 
the Semi-arians that he was 



• CalumyVs Abridgment of Baxter's History, vol i. p. 110. 

| Asiatic Researcnes. Knew Perthcft. Broughton, vol. ii. p. 559. 

* lliblory of Religion, vol. iv. 



SEM 



265 



SEP 



iptotovrtcs, of the like substance 
With the Father ; the latter say 
that the Son was begotten by 
the will of the Father ; the for- 
mer, by necessary and eternal 
generation.* 

*SEMI-JUDAIZERS, the 
followers of Francis David, a 
Hungarian, superintendant of 
the Socinian churches in Tran- 
sylvania, and who opposed with 
great zeal the worship of Jesus 
Christ, which, it appears, was 
in some sense as strongly de- 
fended by Socinus; and David, 
in consequence of tenaciously 
adhering to his own opinions, 
was thrown into prison, where 
he died at an advanced age. His 
sect, however, did not die with 
him, and Socinus wrote against 
them under the name of Semi- 
Judaizers. It is remarkable, 
that though Socinus urged the 
worship of Christ, not as God, 
but as Mediator, he acknow- 
ledges a stronger degree of 
faith, in those who pray imme- 
diately to God, without a Me- 
diator.! 

SEMI -PELAGIANS, a 
branch of the Pelagians in the 
fifth century. The monk Cas- 
sian was the leader of this de- 
nomination. In order to ac- 
commodate the difference be- 
tween Augustin and Pelagius, 
lie maintained the following 
doctrines : — 1. That God did 
not dispense his grace to one 
more than to another, in con- 
sequence of the decree of pre- 
destination ; but was willing to 



save all men, if they complied 
with the terms of his gospel. — 
2. ThatChrist died for all men. 
— 3. That the grace purchased 
by Christ, and necessary to sal- 
vation, was offered to all men. 
— 4. That man, before he re- 
ceived grace, was capable of 
faith and holy desires. — 5. That 
man, born free, was consequent- 
ly capable of resisting the in- 
fluences of grace, or of comply- 
ing with its suggestions. 

The Pelagians and Semi-Pe- 
lagians differ in this respect : 
the former assert that there is 
no necessity for inward grace ; 
but the latter maintain that 
no persons can advance in vir- 
tue without the assistance of 
divine grace : though they sub- 
ject this inward grace to the 
freedom of the will4 See Pe- 
Ici^icins* * 

^SEPARATES. This appel- 
lation was given about the year 
1740 to a number of people, 
whose zeal was produced by the 
instrumentality of the celebrat- 
ed George Whitfield, and other 
itinerant preachers. Soon af- 
ter these reformers, who were 
at first called New Lights, and 
afterwards Separates, were or- 
ganized into distinct societies, 
they were joined by Shubal 
Stearns, a native of Boston, 
who, becoming a preacher, la- 
boured among them until 1751, 
when he embraced the senti- 
ments of the Baptists, as many 
others of the Pedobaptist Sepa- 
rates did about this time. He 



* Moshcim, vol. i. p. 420, new ed. f Ibid. vol. iv. p. 525—7, 

* Mosheim, vol. i. p. 426. Stackhouse's Body of Divinitv, p. 150. 

S4 



SElt 



266 



SER 



was ordained the same year he 
was baptized, in Tolland, Con- 
necticut ; but afterwards re- 
moved from New England, and 
settled in North Carolina. 

Mr, Stearns, and most of the 
Separates, had strong faith in 
the immediate teachings of the 
Spirit. They believed that to 
those who sought him earnest- 
ly, God often gave evident to- 
kens of his will. That such 
indications of the divine pleas- 
ure, partaking of the nature of 
inspiration, were above, though 
not contrary to reason ; and 
that following these, and lean- 
ing in every step upon the 
same wisdom and power by 
which they were first actuated, 
they would inevitably be led to 
the accomplishment of the two 
great obiects of a christian's 
life, the glory of God, and the 
salvation of nien.^ 

SERVERIANS,asmall par- 
ty of Gnostics, in the second 
century ; so called from Scr- 
vcrus, who is said to have 
taught that the world was made 
!>y principalities and powers ; 
and that the devil is the son of 
the great prince of the princi- 
palities.! 
SKRV BRITES.apartyofthe 
Monophysites, called after Ser- 
verus, a monk of Palestine ; the 
same (or nearly so,) as the Jln- 
v.s. in the fifth century. 
SERVETlANS, a name 
h in the sixteenth century 
distinguished the followers of 
Michael Servetus, a very learn- 



ed and ingenious Spaniard. He 
is said to have taught that " the 
Deity, before the creation of the 
world, had produced within 
himself two personal represen- 
tations, or manners of exist- 
ence, which were to be the me- 
dium of intercourse between 
him and mortals, and by whom 
consequently he was to reveal 
his will, and display his mercy 
and beneficence to the children 
of men : — that these two repre- 
sentatives were the Word and 
the Holy Ghost — that the for- 
mer was united to the man 
Christ, who was born of the 
Virgin Mary by an omnipotent 
act of the divine will ; and that 
on this account Christ might be 
properly called God — that the 
Holy Spirit directed the course, 
and animated the whole system 
of nature ; and more especial- 
ly produced in the minds of men 
wise counsels, virtuous propen- 
sities, and divine feelings — and 
finally, that these two represen- 
tations were, after the destruc- 
tion of this globe, to be absorb- 
ed into the substanceof the Dei- 
ty, whence they had been form- 
ed." 

Servetus denied infant bap- 
tism, and maintained, thai no 
man ought to be punished as a 
criminal for any point of doc- 
trine. This was not the opin- 
ion of the age, nor of the re- 
formers. For it is asserted, 
thai when Servetus had escaped 
from his prison at Vienne, and 
was 1 ravelling through Swit- 



ledict'a Eiist of the Baptists, vol ii p. 87. 

f BfOUghton, vol. i. p. 310. Ileum's Junctor Hislor. vol. ii. p. 101. 



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zerland in order to seek refuge 
in Italy, Calvin caused him to 
be apprehended at Geneva in 
the year 1553, and had an ac- 
cusation of blasphemy brought 
against him before the council. 
The issue of this accusation 
was fatal to Servetus, who, ad- 
hering resolutely to the opin- 
ions he had embraced, was, by 
a public sentence of the court, 
declared an obstinate heretic, 
and condemned to the flames. 
Persecution for opinions was 
strongly supported by the hab- 
its of the sixteenth century ; 
and all the reformers, as well 
as Calvin, were advocates for 
persecution^ when applied to 
others.^ 

SETHIANS, so called be- 
cause they paid high honours to 
Seth, whom, it is said, they look- 
ed upon to be Jesus Christ ; 
but here (as Lardner remarks) 
must be some mistake, because 
they said Christ was descended 
from Seth in a miraculous way, 
i. e. by being born of a virgin. 
Perhaps they considered Seth 
as the promised seed : Gen. iii. 
15. and iv. 20. and might sup- 
pose the pre-cxistent soul of 
Christ had animated the patri- 
arch. They had several apo- 
cryphal books in addition to the 
scriptures. This denomina- 
tion appeared in Egypt about 
the year one hundred and nine- 
ty, and continued above two 
hundred years.f 

SHAKERS. In the account 



these people give of themselves, 
they mention the Quakers in the 
time of Oliver Cromwell, and 
the French Prophets at a later 
date, as being the first who had 
a peculiar testimony from the 
Lord to deliver to the chris- 
tian world. But they complain 
that the former degenerated, 
fi losing the desire of love and 
pow er with which they first set 
out/ 5 and the latter being of 
short continuance, « their ex- 
traordinary communications" 
have long ago ceased. This 
testimony was revived in the 
persons of" James Wardley, a 
taylor by trade, and Jane his 
wife, who wrought at the same 
occupation." — " And the work 
under them began at Bolton and 
Manchester in Lancashire, a- 
boutthe year 1747." They had 
belonged to the society of Qua- 
kers, but receiving the spirit of 
the French prophets, and a far- 
ther degree of light and power, 
by which they were separated 
from that community, they con- 
tinued for several years discon- 
nected from every denomina- 
tion. During this time their 
testimony, according to what 
they declare they saw by vision 
and revelation from God, was, 
« that the second appearance of 
Christ was at hand, and that the 
church was rising in her full and 
transcendentglory, which would 
affect the final downfall of Anti- 
christ." From the shaking of 
their bodies in religious exer- 



* Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 172, 173. Memoirs of Literature, vol. iv. p. 199° 
Erskine's Sketches of Eccles. History, vol. ii. p. 277. 

f Broughton, vol. ii. p. 390. Lardner's Heretics, p 333. &c. 



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cises they are called Shakers, 
or Shaking Quakers, This 
name they acknowledge to he 
proper. For say they, " The 
work which God promised to 
accomplish in the latter day, was 
eminently marked out by the 
prophets to be a work of Shak- 
ing; and hence the name (though 
by the world intended for deris- 
ion) was very properly applied 
to the people ; who were both 
the subjects and instruments of 
the work of God in the latter 
day." 

The work went on under 
Wardley, till the year 1770, 
when a new impulse was given 
to the society by Anne Leese, 
who became a distinguished 
leader of this denomination. 
This woman declared herself 
"the Elect Lady" the woman 
spoken of in Rev. xii. and the 
mother of all the elect." To 
such as addressed her with the 
customary titles used by the 
world, she would reply* "lam 
Jinne, the Word" signifying, 
that in her dwelt the word. She 
was received and acknow ledged, 
by the Shakers, " as the first 
mother, or spiritual parent in 
the line of the female, and the 
second heir in the covenant of 
life, according to the present 
display of the gospel*" Hence 
aoiong believers, she has beei 
disti (I by no other name 

or title than that of mother. 
Her followers assert, that she 
was the instrument to introduce 
the glory of the Utter day. 

manner of worship, of 



this denomination and the exer- 
cises used in their public assem- 
blies are shaking and trem- 
bling,singing and dancing, leap- 
ing and shouting ; and, accord- 
ing to their account, " prophe- 
sying or speaking with new 
tongues ; and they exhibit such 
supernatural effects of the pow- 
er of God, as appear to the blind 
spectators of this world like the 
most unaccountable confusion. 
But such," say they, " as were iu 
the work, knew perfectly what 
these things meant, and felt 
therein the greatest possible or- 
der and harmony, it being to 
them the gift and work of God 
for the time then present ; and 
which bore the strongest evi- 
dence, that the world was actu- 
ally come to an end, (at least 
to those who were the subjects 
of it,) and the day of judg- 
ment commenced." 

In 1774, Anne Leese, and a 
number of her followers, who 
complained of being persecuted 
in Manchester, set sail from 
Liverpool for New York. Be- 
ing joined by others, they set- 
tled at Nisqueunia near Alba- 
ny ; where they have spread 
their opinions, and increased to 
a considerable number. The 
persevering efforts of this soci- 
ety multiplied the converts to 
their doctrines. Anno Leese, 
and her elders, used to delight 
in missionary journeys, being 
out for two or three years, and 
returning; with wonderful ac- 
counts of their success. 

Anne Leese died in 1784,* 



I his denomination ippean to suppose, that the divinity dwelt in Anne 



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James Whilacher succeeded this 
elect lady, but dying in 1787, 
John Hocknell, the last of the 
European band, took the lead, 
and he died 1799, in the seven- 
ty sixth year of his age. Jo- 
seph Meacham, and Lucy 
Wright, were the next admin- 
istrators of this spiritual king- 
dom. 

It appears from a work of the 
Shakers, published at Albany 
1810, entitled, " The Testimo- 
ny of Christ's second appear- 
ance," &c. that in the delinea- 
tion of their doctrines this de- 
nomination are exceedingly 
mystical and obscure; it is 
much easier to pronounce neg- 
atively rather than positively 
concerning them. They are 
neither Trinitarians nor Satis- 
faction ists. They deny also 
the imputation of Adam's sin to 
his posterity ; the doctrine of 
election and reprobation, as well 
as the eternity of future pun- 
ishments. And in their chap- 
ter on the resurrection, the re- 
suscitation of the body is deni- 
ed very positively, and at great 
length. They reject the cele- 
bration of water baptism and 
the Lord's supper. 

The tenets, on which the Sha- 
kers most dwell, are those of hu- 
man depravity, and of the mi- 
raculous effusion of the Holy 
Spirit. Their leading practical 
tenet is the abolition of marriage, 
or indeed the total separation of 
the sexes. The essence of their 
argument is, that the resurrec- 



tion spoken of in the new testa- 
ment means nothing more than 
conversion ; our Saviour de- 
clares that in the resurrection 
they neither marry, nor are giv- 
en in marriage, therefore on the 
conversion or the resurrection 
of the individual, marriage 
ceases. To speak more plain- 
ly, the single must continue sin- 
gle, and the married must sep- 
arate. Every passage in the 
gospel and in the epistles is in- 
terpreted according to this hy- 
pothesis. In particular they 
endeavour to support their opin- 
ion from 1 Cor. vii. 

This denomination asserts, 
that the day of judgment is past, 
and consider their testimony as 
a new dispensation, which they 
call Chrisfs second appearance. 
In which they are not to be guid- 
ed so much by the scriptures, 
as by the influences of the Holy 
Spirit. They pretend to have 
the power imparted to them of 
working miracles ; and have re- 
lated several instances of super- 
natural cases, attested by wit- 
nesses, &c« " by which," sav 
they, "the most stubborn unbe- 
lievers were confounded, and the 
faith of others strengthened." 

They maintain that it is 
unlawful to take oaths, game, 
or use compliments to each oth- 
er. They practise a communi- 
ty of goods ; and have no per- 
sons regularly educated for the 
ministry. In their chapter up- 
on public worship, they vindi- 
cate their music and dancing as 



Leese, as truly as in Christ ; and that in her, his second coming to judge the 
I was verified. - 



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leading parts of worship, espe- 
cially alluding to the return of 
the prodigal, while the elder 
son, disliking music and danc- 
ing, represents the natural man 
condemning their soul-reviving 
practices. * 

SLMONIANS, the suppos- 
ed followers of Simon Magus, 
whose history is recorded in 
Acts viii. 9 — 24. He is said to 
have heen the founder of the 
Gnostics, but this is denied by 
others, who consider him as a 
total apostate from Christianity, 
and refuse him even the honour 
of being a heretic.f See Gnos- 
tics. 

*SIMONISTS, a name given 
to persons who purchase holy 
orders, in allusion to the crime 
of Simon Magus, just referred 
to. 

SINTOOS, the ancient idol- 
aters of Japan. See Japanese. 

SOCIETY OF THE VIC- 
TIMS. On the 23d of June, 
1804, an imperial decree was 
issued for the suppression of 
those associations, known un- 
der the names of Fathers of the 
Faith 9 adorers of Jesus or l\i- 
canaristes. This decree was 
provoked by a report of Porta- 
lig, minister of worship; a re- 
port extremely well written. 
printed, hut not published; It 
has been translated into ( 
man, and therein speaks of a 



secret society of Victims, con- 
cerning which society the fol- 
lowing account has been given 
by Gregoire, in his learned 
work, styled, " Histoire Des 
Sectes Religeuses." 

Catherine de Bar was boni 
at Lorraine in 1619. She es- 
tablished, in the year 1657, at 
Rambervillers, a new religious 
order, for persons of her own 
sex, which spread rapidly in 
France. She adopted the rule 
of St. Benedict, but with some 
modifications, which she ex- 
plained in a work, entitled, 
* The true spirit of the perpet- 
ual religious worshippers of 
the most holy sacrament of the 
altar." The proper character 
of these nuns was that of being 
Victims, to expiate the sins com- 
mitted against Jesus Christ in 
the celebration of the eucharist. 
Each day one of the Religious 
remains in her retreat from 
mattins until vespers. Her of- 
fice is to be the expiatory Vic- 
tim. When the sisters go to 
their dining room, the Victim 
is the last to leave the choir. 
She appears with a cord about 
her neck, and a torch in her 
hands. When they have all 
taken their places, she reminds 
them that they are all Victim*, 
immolated for the sake of ,1c- 
sas Chrisl ; she then bows her- 
self, returns to the choir dur- 



icond appearance, containinjra general statc- 
of all thin mrch of God in 

called the Shakers'Bible be- 
fall acconnl • faith and practices. Evans* Sketch of 

. ' 1 u 

■f M p 1 i 7 Duptn*9 Church Hist vol. i. p. 29. 

Fonney'fl • Dictionary, vol. )i. 



soc 



271 



SOC 



ing dinner* and remains there 
until after vespers, like a victim 
separated from the flock, and 
destined for sacrifice. 

Regnauld, a curate of Vaux, 
author of a work, entitled, 
"The Mystery of Iniquity, 55 
makes mention of a work, en- 
titled, " Les Galarics, 55 pub- 
lished in 1754, a species of 
mysticism in favour of convul- 
sions. In the fourth galeric of 
Elias, the author asserts, " The 
victim's are of the greatest im- 
portance. They are devoted 
for every crime, and each of 
them bears different parts in 
the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. 
This character will make them 
known to the Gentiles. The 
despair of the victims will ex- 
piate presumptuous confidence, 
as the sacrifice of Jesus Christ 
on the cross has represented 
and expiated the sins into which 
mankind had fallen. They 
must bear to be culpable in the 
eyes of men, that they may com- 
plete what is wanting in the 
passion of our Saviour. They 
must bear the burdens of the 
anger of God and men. They 
must be found amid the abodes 
of infamy, among robbers and 
murderers. Besides these pub- 
lic victims, there must be secret 
ones, delivered up to the horri- 
ble states of passion, despair, 
and distraction. 55 

Such probably were the ideas 
of the lady when on the eve of 
founding the order of the Vic- 
tims. She had lived in Lorraine, 
where the houses of the Bene- 
dictines of the holy sacrament 



were numerous. She relates 
that at the age of nine years, 
having experienced in a sensi- 
ble manner the protection of the 
blessed virgin, she consecrated 
herself to her service. 

Madam Brohon, who was 
born at Paris, early devoted 
herself to the cultivation of let- 
ters. The Abbe la Porte, au- 
thor of the " Literary History 
of French Women, 55 written in 
1769, says, " It is now fifteen 
years since much mention was 
made of the mind, the graces, 
and talents of Madam Brohon, 
though she was then but eigh- 
teen years old. He proceeds 
to give an analysis of a work of 
hers, entitled, « The Charms of 
Ingenuity. 55 It is a tale of a- 
bout twenty eight pages. Bos- 
sy, the editor of the Mercury, 
has praised it. 

Her life having been pre- 
served, as she asserts, by a 
miracle of the blessed father 
Fourier, she determined to take 
the monastic vows. She re- 
pented having written roman- 
ces, and consulted the Abbe 
Clement, who directed her for 
some time, and whose virtues 
she highly extolled. 

The penitent devoted herself 
to retirement, for the space of 
fourteen years. At last she re- 
turned to Paris, and there died, 
the eighteenth of September, 
1778, being upwards of forty 
years old c 

From the time she quitted her 
literary career her active spir- 
it exercised itself on ascetic 
subjects. Many of her works 



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have been anonymously pub- 
lished by her admirers. Such 
as " Edifying Instructions on 
the fasting of Jesus Christ in 
Hie desert;" and, " The i\ian- 
uel of the Victims of Jesus, or 
Extracts from the instructions 
which the Lord lias given to his 
first victims/ ' This last work 
appeared in 1799, a volume in 
octavo of four hundred pages. 

In 1774, writing to Beau- 
mont, archbishop of Paris, she 
predicted that God was about 
to execute his judgments on the 
nations, to punish a tenth part 
of the earth, and to choose a neAv 
people ; but first he would es- 
tablish those victims, who would 
constantly immolate themselves 
to him. The Abbe de Garry 
would be their director. France, 
which had been the first chris- 
tian kingdom, and which had 
distinguished itself by the puri- 
ty of its faith, and its piety tow- 
ards the holy virgin, would be 
the cradle of this new people, if 
its perversity did not deprive 
it of this benefit. If France 
rejected the Victims, God would 
take away its provinces; he 
would raise up a strange prince 
to devastate and enslave it. She 
pretended to foresee that the 
Spanish nation was to bo the in- 

nmeiit of God's vengeance. 
Great calamities would then 
fall upon the capita] ; the cler- 

. secular as well as regular, 
would be humbled ; the sanctu- 
aries would be abolished, in or- 
der to punish those who Oil 
t<» have hem their ornaments 



and glory. This was publish- 
ed in 1791. 

In a letter to Lewis XV, then 
sick, Madam Brohon introduc- 
es the Almighty as a Mediator, 
and demands in his name Mad- 
am Victoire to be one of the 
victims. Sophia du Castelle, 
the daughter of a Notary de 
Peronnc, a novitiate of the 
Benedictines de Gomer Fon- 
taire, was also to be one of the 
victims. The number was fix- 
ed at twelve to represent the a- 
postolic college with the same 
attributes. The college of Vic- 
tims was composed of an equal 
number of men and women. 
The latter would have the hon- 
our of beginning the new mis- 
sion; 1. as an effect of the love 
of Jesus Christ for his holy 
mother ; 2. in order to reward 
the fidelity of the women to Je- 
sus Cfirist in the course of his 
mortal life and passion; 3. in 
order to humble the masculine 
sex, who abuse their authority ; 
and to provoke their jealousy 
when they see the zeal of feebfo 
women. The male victims 
would be clothed with the sa- 
cerdotal garments. The wo- 
men, however, would not be 
subordinate to them : they ac- 
knowledge no superiour but the 
bishops ; but they would pre- 
serve a great respect for the 
body of pastors, united to the 
Pope,theheadof the true churchf 
who would receive an augm< 
tation of power over faithful 
souls. Some auxiliaries would 
Conn a body for reserve out. of 



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ers 



SOC 



which the successors of the Vic- 
tims would be chosen. 

The Victims, according to 
their own account, are predict- 
ed in the bible ; without them 
an essential part of the Messi- 
ah would fail. They will be 
established near Jesus Christ, 
to fulfil the same functions for 
him that he has fulfilled for his 
Father. There are, say they, 
some faithful souls, who have 
grace enough to ensure their 
own salvation ; but not enough 
to immolate themselves to di- 
vert the plague which menaces 
the human species. The Vic- 
tims are consecrated to do it by 
taking upon themselves the gen- 
eral anathema. They are the 
centre and recipients of grace, 
the fountain from which it is 
distributed over the whole earth. 
They boasted of being advanc- 
ed in glory above the monastic 
life, and having the same priv- 
ileges as the angels, who would 
mourn if any thing was want- 
ing to complete their felicity. 
They asserted, that "they were 
very dear to the Saviour ; that 
the precious blood which flow- 
ed from his side is the adora- 
ble ink with which their names 
are written ;" and that " him- 
self and the holy virgin have 
declared themselves the father 
and mother of the Victims, with 
the promise of refusing them 
nothing." 

" The sacrifice of the mass 
will continue during the glori- 
ous reign of the Redeemer, 
Then there will be no more mo- 



nasteries. The Victims will be 
the vine and body of the church. 
Enoch and Eljas will preside." 

The greatest crimes are com- 
mitted between six o'clock in 
the evening and two in the 
morning; the Victims pass that 
time in prayer, and recite ma- 
tins at midnight. 

Each Victim has suspended 
to her neck a silver medal, on 
which is engraven the sacred 
hearts of Jesus and Mary, to 
which they owe a perfect devo- 
tion. 

Madam Brohon, being the 
first Victim, it will not be found 
surprising that she was adorned 
with extraordinary graces by 
Jesus, who was her common 
confessor. She declares, that 
he said to her one day, as he 
showed her the wounds on his 
side, " Seek me no more on 
the cross, I have yielded to thee 
my place, I shall no more be 
crucified, my Victims will be- 
instead of me." 

In 1792, a consultation of 
many of the professors and 
doctors of the Sorbonne was 
printed on the following works : 
« Edifying Instructions," and 
« Edifying Reflections." They 
reproached Madam Brohon, the 
author, with various impieties, 
and the most reprehensible 
ideas.^ 

SOCINIANS, a denomina- 
tion which appeared in the six- 
teenth century, followers of 
Lelius Socinus, and Faustus 
Socinus, his nephew, who prop- 
agated his uncle's sentiments in 



Gregoire's Histoire Des Sectes Religeuses, vol. ii. p, 1, 2, 3, 4, &c; 

55 



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a public manner after his death. 
Their principal tenets are — 
1. That the holy scriptures are 
to be understood and explained 
in such a manner as to render 
them conformable to the dictates 
of right reason, and sound phi- 
losophy. — 2. That Jesus Christ, 
who was conceived by the Holy 
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, 
was the true Messiah, and the 
chief of the prophets. That in 
order to qualify him for his ex- 
traordinary office, before he 
commenced his ministry, he 
was taken up to heaven* and in- 
structed fully in the object of 
his mission, after which he re- 
turned to the earth to promul- 
gate among mankind a new rule 
of life, more excellent than any 
under which they had formerly 
lived ; to propagate divine truth 
by his ministry, and to confirm 
it by his death ; in reward for 
which he is raised to dominion 
and glory. — 3. That those who 
believe and obey the voice of 
this divine teacher (which is in 
the power of every one) shall 
at the last day be raised from 
the dead, and made eternally 
happy ; while, on the other hand, 
the wicked and disobedient 



shall be sorely tormented, and 
afterwards annihilated. 

Such were the religious tenets 
of Socinus and his immediate 
followers. Those of the present 
day, who maintain the mere 
humanity of Christ, differ from 
Socinus in many things ; par- 
ticularly as to the miraculous 
conception, and in not paying re- 
ligious worship to Jesus Christ, 
which was a point that Faustus 
Socinus vehemently insisted on. 
Sec Humanitarians. f 

Socinus allowed that the ti- 
tle of God might be given to 
Christ ; because he had a real 
divine power and dominion be- 
stowed upon him, to qualify 
him to take care of the concerns 
of christians, and to hear and 
answer their prayers, though he 
was originally no more than a 
human creature. 

There were some among the 
early Socinians who disapprov- 
ed of the worship paid to 
Christ ; and at present, it is a- 
greed among all Unitarians,that 
the Supreme God in one person 
is the only object of religious 
worship. Sec Unitarians. 

Socinus was a strict Pelagian 
in his sentiments respecting hu- 



* Socinus, and some of his followers, entertained a notion of Christ's having 
ii some unknown time of his life, taken up personally into heaven, and sent 
down again to the earth, which was the way, in which they solved these expres- 
sions concerning him : John iii. 13, JVb man htuh atcendtd up to heaven, but he that 
cam'' down from heaven, even the S?n of man which it in heaven. Thus Moses, who 
was the typeofChrist, before the promulgation of the law, ascended to Clod upon 
Mount Sinai* So Christ, before he entered on the office assigned him by the Fa- 
ther, was, id consequence of the divine counsel and agency, translated into hea- 
ven, that lie might see the things he had to announce to the World, in the name 
of God himself. 

f The terms, Socinians and Humanitarians, are used to denote all Unita- 
rians who deny the pre -existence of Christ. Sec Yates' Sequel, p 8. 



soc 



9.76 



SOU 



man nature, and the divine de- 
crees. See Pelagians. 

The Socinians differ from the 
Arians in the following partic- 
ulars. 

The Socinians assert, that 
Christ was simply a man, and 
consequently had no existence 
before his birth and appear- 
ance in this world. The Ari- 
ans maintain that Christ was 
a super-angelic being, united to 
a human body : that, though he 
was himself created, he was the 
creator of all other things un- 
der God, and the instrument of 
all the divine communications to 
the patriarchs. 

The Socinians say that the 
Holy Ghost is the power and 
wisdom of God, which is God. 
The Arians suppose, that the 
Holy Spirit is the creature of the 
Son, and subservient to him in 
the work of redemption. 

The Socinians flourished 
greatly in Poland about the 
year 1551, and J. Siemienius, 
Palatine of Podolia, built pur- 
posely for their use the city of 
Itacon. A famous catechism 
was published by them, called 
the Racovian catechism ; but it 
never obtained among this de- 
nomination the authority of a 
public confession. or rule of faith. 
Their most able writers are 
known by the title of the Fra- 
tres Poloni, or Polonian Bre- 
thren. Their writings were re- 
published together, in the year 



1656, in one great collection, 
consisting of six volumes in fo- 
lio, under the title of Bibliotheca 
Fratrum. An account of those 
authors may be seen in Dr. 
Toulmin's Life of Socinus.* 

' SOLDINS, the followers of 
Soldin, a Greek priest, about 
the middle of the fifth century, 
who, in the mass, it is said, of- 
fered gold, incense and myrrh, 
in memory of the like offerings 
made by the Magi.f 

*SOMNITES) orthodox Ma- 
hometans, which see. 

^SOUL-SLEEPERS, aterm 
sometimes applied to Material- 
ists, because they admit no in- 
termediate state between death 
and the resurrection. 

SOUTHCOTTIANS, the 
followers of Joanna Southcott, 
who was born in 1750. In 
1792, she assumed the charac- 
ter of a prophetess, and the 
number of people, who have 
joined with her from that peri- 
od to the time of her death, as 
believing her to be divinely in- 
spired, is considerable. She 
declared that she w r as the wo- 
man in the wilderness, spok- 
en of Rev. xii. 6 ; and having 
first excited the feelings of her 
adherents, gave them sealed 
passports, which were called 
her seals, and which were to 
protect them from the judg- 
ments of the present and future 
world. She next called upon 
them to sign their names for 



* For an account of the Socinian divisions, see Biddelians, Budneians, and 
Farvonians. 
•J- Brougbton, vol. ii. p. 560. 



sou 



276 



SOU 



Christ's glorious and peaceable 
kingdom to come upon the 
earth, and for satan's to be de- 
stroyed. The sealed of the Lord, 
Elect, Precious, $c. were then 
written on a piece of paper ; 
and Joanna affixed her signa- 
ture. Each of the seals being 
then signed, the impression of 
the seal of the prophetess was 
made on the outside, with wax. 
Her followers placed implicit 
confidence in her certificates ; 
and it is said, that some who 
were actually dying, ordered 
these seals to be buried with 
them as a passport to heaven. 

Her predictions were deliv- 
ered both in prose and verse, 
and contained, besides some 
personal threatenings, denun- 
ciations of judgments on the 
surrounding nations, and a 
promise of the speedy approach 
of the millennium. The whole 
purport of her predictions was, 
she said, to warn the world at 
large that the second coming 
of Christ is nigh at hand ; and 
to show from the fall, that the 
promise, which was made to 
the woman at first, must be 
accomplished at last, and in 
luTQCX too, before man's com- 
plete redemption can take 
place. 

In the course of Joanna's mis- 
sion, as she railed it, the desire 
of increasing her followers* in- 
duced her to itinerate through 
different parts of England, par- 
ticularly at Bristol, Leeds, c\c. 



She met with followers in most 
directions, especially at Leeds, 
where her cause greatly flour- 
ished. Having satisfied herself 
with being an itinerant, Joanna 
finally settled near the metro- 
polis. Her leading chapel was 
in Dukerstreet, St. George's 
Fields* in the vicinity of the 
Obelisk ; where her high priest, 
Mr. \V. Tozer, presided, and 
where the liturgy of the church 
of England was read, prepar- 
atory to the sermonic elucida- 
tion of her prognostications. 
They had a choir of singers, 
her poetry supplying them with 
hymns. Anxious to be regard- 
ed as within the acknowledged 
pale of the christian church, 
notwithstanding their eccentri- 
cities, the sacrament was regu- 
larly administered among them, 
and they even affected to con- 
sider themselves in the charac- 
ter of members of the estab- 
lishment. 

Joanna continued to gain 
proselytes, to whom she made 
the most magnificent promises 
of wonderful events, which 
would shortly be accomplished 
in her person ; but her death, 
which took place in 1814, dis- 
appointed their raised expecta- 
tions, and exposed them to the 
derision and contempt of the 
enemies of the pretended pro- 
phetess. Those, who wish for 
a more detailed account of this 
woman, arc referred to the 
statement of the life, predie- 



1 She asserted, that her followers were to make up the sealed mini her of 
one hundred and forty-four thousand to stand with the 1/ambon Mount Zion. 



sou 



277 



SOU 



lions, and death of the Exeter 
prophetess ; see also Hughson's 
History of Religious Impos- 
tures, and Carpenter's Mis- 
sionary Magazine. 

SOUTH-SEA ISLANDERS 
are the inhabitants of the So- 
ciety, Friendly, Sandwich, and 
some other Islands ; of none of 
which have we so much or so 
correct knowledge as that of 
Otaheite, (or rather Taheite,) to 
which therefore the following 
account principally, but not 
exclusively, refers. 

They in general acknowledge 
an almighty Creator of the uni- 
verse, who executed the vari- 
ous parts of the creation by 
subordinate powerful beings. 
They acknowledge a something 
within them, which sees, hears, 
smells, tastes, and feels, which 
they call eteehee ; and they be- 
lieve that after the dissolution 
of the body, it hovers about the 
corpse, and at last retires into 
the wooden representations of 
human bodies, erected near the 
burying places. They expect 
a future happy life in the sun, 
where they shall feast on bread- 
fruit, and meat which requires 
no dressing : and they direct 
their prayers to the supreme di- 
vinity, or Eatooa-Rahai. 

The name Eatooa admits a 
very great latitude in its inter- 
pretation. Each of the islands 
has a tutelar deity, which is al- 
ways the divinity, to whom the 
high priest of the isle addresses 
his prayer, at the grand morai 
of the prince. The great deity, 
or Eatooa-Rahai, they consider 



as the primary cause of all di- 
vine and human beings ; and 
suppose the inferiour deities, 
and even mankind, are descend- 
ed from him and a female dei 
ty, for which reason they call 
him the great procreating stem. 
They imagine a co-existing 
material substance necessary, 
which they called O-te-pa-pa. 
These procreated O-hee-naa, 
the goddess of the moon ; the 
gods of the stars, (whom they 
call the children of the sun and 
moon ; ) of the seas, and of the 
winds. But the sea is under 
the direction of thirteen divini- 
ties, who have all their peculiar 
employment. Their supreme 
god lives in the sun, and is 
thought to be the cause of earth- 
quakes. They have one infe- 
riour genius, of a malignant dis- 
position, residing near the mo- 
rai, or burying places, and in or 
near the chest including the 
heads of their deceased friends, 
each of which is called the 
house of the evil genius. The 
people think that when a priest 
invocates this evil genius he 
w ill kill, by a sudden death, the 
person on whom they intend to 
bring down his vengeance. — 
They have another inferiour di- 
vinity, who had the same power 
of killing men, with this differ- 
ence, that he is worshipped 
only by hissing. This is called 
Tee-hee, which, they say, is the 
being that hears, smells, tastes, 
and feels within us, and after 
death exists separately from the 
body, but lives near burying 
places, and hovers round the 



sou 



£78 



SOU 



dead. These Tee-hees are like- 
wise feared : because, accord- 
ing to their belief, they creep 
during the night into houses, 
and eat the hearts and entrails 
of people sleeping therein, and 
cause their death. 

These islanders honour their 
divinities by prayers, by setting 
apart certain days for religious 
worship, by consecrating cer- 
tain persons and places for that 
purpose, and by offering human 
sacrifices, which are generally 
either prisoners of war, or con- 
demned malefactors.^ They 
prepare those oblations on their 
morals. 

The deities of Otaheite are 
nearly as numerous as the per- 
sons of the inhabitants. Every 
family has its Tee, or guardian 
spirit, whom they set up and 
worship at the morai : but they 
have a great god, or gods of a 
superiour order, denominated 
Fwhanow Po, or born of night. 
The genera] name for deity, in 
all its ramifications, is Eatooa. 
Three are held supreme in ce- 
lestial dignity, which are called, 
Tane, te Medooa, the Father; 
Oromattow, Tooa tee te Myde, 
God in the Son ; Tafoa, Man- 
noo te Hooa, the Bird, the Spir- 
it To these they only address 
their prayers in times of very 
great distress, supposing lliem 
to be too highly exalted to be 
troubled with matters of less 
moment than the illness of a 
chief, storms, devastation, war, 
or any great calamnity, — For 



general worship they have a 
kind of dii penates, or house- 
hold gods. Each family has its 
guardian spirit, who is supposed 
to be one of their departed re- 
latives, who, for his superiour 
excellence, has been exalted to 
an Eatooa. They suppose this 
spirit can inflict sickness, or re- 
move it, and preserve them 
from a malignant deity, who is 
always employed in mischief. 
Some of the Otaheitans are 
very devout, and not only are 
the w hattas, or offering places 
of the morais, commonly loaded 
with fruits and animals, but 
there are few houses where you 
do not meet with a small place 
of the same sort near them. 
They imagine that their punc- 
tual performance of religious 
offices prepares for them every 
temporal blessing. They be- 
lieve that the animating and 
powerful influence of the divine 
Spirit is every where diffused ; 
and that sudden deaths, and all 
accidents, are effected by the 
immediate action of some divi- 
nity ; and they have some no- 
tion of a metempsychosis, or 
transmigration of the soul, and 
that it returns eventually into re- 
union with the supreme Deity. 
The missionaries, who have 
for several years resided at Ota- 
heite. have found the inhabi- 
tants to be cannibals, and that 
they not only sacrifice their ene- 
mies, but eat them ; besides 
which they have a horrid cus- 
tom of destroying their infants* 



• Foster's Geographical Observations, p. 333, 334, 



SPI 



279 



STO 



which, with their wars, has 
much depopulated them. How- 
ever, as Christianity has obtain- 
ed influence among them, these 
evils have, in some degree, dis- 
appeared. 

From recent intelligence, it 
appears that many of the inhab- 
itants of these islands have em- 
braced the christian religion. 
It is said, that the majority of 
the people of Eimeo have re- 
nounced heathenism, and it is 
supposed there are upwards of 
one thousand people in that is- 
land who are professedly the 
worshippers of the true God. 
They are distinguished from 
their countrymen by the name 
of" Bure Atua," or Praying 
People. The missionaries at Ei- 
meo have printed the Bible, in 
the Taheitean language, and 
the number of christians is 
increasing rapidly in Eimeo, 
and Otaheite.^ See Appendix. 

SPINOSISTS, the followers 
of Benedict Spinosa, a cele- 
brated Portuguese Jew, who 
died at the Hague in 1677. He 
was the great champion of the 
Pantheists, (which see,) and his 
writings had the more weight 
because his character was mo- 
ral, and his language, both in 
speaking and writing, decorous 
and inoffensive : so much so, 
that he had many advocates, 
who thought him unjustly ac- 
cused of such principles. In 
his Ethics, however, a posthu- 



mous work, he throws off the 
mask, and avows his opinion, 
that the Deity is only another 
name for the universe, " produc- 
ing a series of necessary move- 
ments or acts, in consequence 
of its own intrinsic, immutable, 
and irresistible energy." It is 
said that he was seduced into 
this opinion by the Cartesian 
philosophy.* 

STANCARIANS, disciples 
of Francis Stancarus, Hebrew 
Professor at Koningsburgh, in 
the sixteenth century, who 
taught that Jesus Christ was 
mediator in quality of a mere 
man only, and not as God 
in the form of man.f 

*STAROBRED3I, or Old 
Ceremonialists, a numerous sect 
of Russian Dissenters, who 
strongly objected to the inno- 
vations of Nikon, but do not 
object to the ordinations of the 
Mother Church. In 1735 the 
two churches of Staradubofsk 
and Vetka amounted to 80,000 
members; but the latter has since 
been scattered by persecution 
throughout all Russia and Si- 
beria ; and many fled into Po- 
land about 1764, where this 
sect is now supposed to amount 
to several hundred thousands.^: 

^STAROVERTSI, believers 
of the old Faith ; the name as- 
sumed by the Russian Dissent- 
ers, generally called Rascolniks, 
which see. 

STOICS, a sect of heathen 



* American Baptist Magazine, 1817. Bayle's Dictionary in Spinosa, 
vol. iv. p. 338. new edit. 

t Mosheiin, vol. iv, p. 338. * Pinker ton's Greek Church, p. 598, &c 






STO 



280 



STO 



philosophers, of which Zeno, 
who flourished about three hun- 
dred and fifty years before 
Christ, was the founder. They 
received their denomination 
from a portico at Athens, in 
which Zeno delivered his lec- 
tures. Their distinguishing 
tenets were — That God is un- 
derived, incorruptible, and 
eternal; possessed of infinite 
wisdom and goodness ; the ef- 
ficient cause of all the qualities 
and forms of things ; and the 
constant preserver and gover- 
nour of the world. That mat- 
ter is also underived and eter- 
nal, and by the powerful energy 
of the Deity impressed with 
motion and form. That though 
God and matter subsisted from 
eternity, the present regular 
frame of nature had a begin- 
ning, and will have an end. 
That the element of fire will, 
at last, by an universal confla- 
gration, reduce* the world to 
its pristine state. That at this 
period all material forms will 
be lost in one chaotic mass ; 
and all animated nature be re- 
united to the Deity. That 
from this chaotic state, how- 
ever* the world will again 
emerge by the energy of the 
efficient principle ; and gods, 
and men, and all forms of reg- 
idsted nature, be renewed and 
dissolved, in endless succes- 



sion. That after the rcvolu* 
tion of the great year all things 
will be restored, and the race 
of men will return to life. Some 
imagined that each individual 
would return to its former 
body, while others supposed 
that similar souls would be 
placed in similar bodies. 

Those among the Stoics, who 
maintained the existence of the 
soul after death, supposed it to 
be removed into the celestial 
regions of the gods, where it 
remains until, at the general 
conflagration, all souls, both 
human and divine, shall be ab- 
sorbed in the Deity. But man> 
imagined that, before they were 
admitted among the divinities, 
they must purge away their 
inherent vices and imperfec- 
tions, by a temporary residence 
in some aerial regions between 
the earth and the planets. Ac- 
cording to the general doctrine 
of the Stoics all things are sub- 
ject to a blind irresistible fatal- 
ity, even the gods themselves ; 
though some explained this fate 
as meaning only the irresis- 
tible decrees of divine provi- 
dence.* It was the object of 
this philosophy to divest men 
of their passions and affections ; 
they taught, therefore, that a 
wise man might he happy in 
the midst of torture, and that 
all external things were to him 



* Dr. Priestley observes, that " It is not easy to say what the heathen phi- 
losophers, and others thought of fate, and the relation the ^ods bore to it. 
Bometimei they seem to have thought that thev directed fate; at other times 

that I power independent of them, and that controuled them Seneca 

i to have thought that (ate was nothing more than the will of the god*; 
Uv's Heathen Philosophy, p. 244. 



STY 



281. 



SUF 



indifferent. Their virtues all 
arose from, and centred in 
themselves, and self-approba- 
tion was their great reward. 3 * 

*STRIGOLNIKS ? the most 
ancient sect of Russian Dis- 
senters. They appeared in 
Novogorod, and were found- 
ed by a half-christian Jew, nam- 
ed Horie, who attempted, after 
the manner of the Ebionites, 
to blend the laws of Moses with 
the doctrines of the gospel. 
They were at first inconsider- 
able ; but, by the absurd system 
of persecution, were rendered 
very numerous, and dispersed 
verv extensively.! 

STYLITES, so called by 
the Greeks, and Sancti Colum- 
narii, or Pillar Saints, by the 
Latins. They stood motion- 
less upon the top of pillars, ex- 
pressly raised for this exercise 
of their patience ; and remain- 
ed there for several years, 
amidst the admiration and ap- 
plause of the populace. 

The inventor of this disci- 
pline was Simeon, a Syrian, 
who, in order to climb as near 
to heaven as possible, passed 
thirty-seven years of his life 
upon five pillars, of six, twelve, 
twenty two, thirty six, and 
forty cubits high ; and thus 
acquired a most shining repu- 
tation, and attracted the vene- 
ration of all about him. Many 
of the inhabitants of Syria fol- 



lowed his example, though not 
with the same degree of auster- 
ity : and this practice, which 
was begun in the fifth, continu- 
ed in vogue till the twelfth cen- 
tury.:): 

SUBLArSARIANS, an ap- 
pellation given to those Calvi- 
nists, who suppose, that the 
decree of predestination re- 
gards man as fallen, by an abuse 
of that freedom which Adam 
had, into a state, in which all 
must have perished but for the 
election of grace.§ 

SUFIS, or Souffees, a sect 
ot modern philosophers in Per- 
sia, who are so called, either 
from the Greek word for a sage, 
or from the woollen mantle 
which they used to wear in 
some provinces of Persia. 
Their fundamental tenets are : 
That nothing exists absolutely 
but God ; that the human soul 
is an emanation from his es- 
sence ; and though divided for 
a time from its heavenly source, 
will be finally re-united with 
it: that the highest possible 
happiness will arise from its 
re-union ; and that the chief 
good of mankind consists in as 
perfect a union with the eternal 
spirit, as the incumbrances of a 
mortal frame will allow : that, 
for this purpose, they should! 
break off all connexion with ex- 
trinsic objects, and pass through 
life without attachments, as a, 



* Enfield, vol. i. p. -282. Mosheim, vol. i. p. 35, new edition, 
f Pmkerton's Greek Church, p. 280, &c. 

* Mosheim, vol. i. p 391. History of Don Ignatius, vol. i. p. 31*. 
§ Doddridge's Lectures, p, 460. 



SUP 



282 



SUP 



swimmer in the ocean strikes 
freely without the impediments 
of clothes : that, if mere earthly 
charms have power to influence 
the soul, the idea of celestial 
beauty must overwhelm it in 
ecstatic light. They maintain 
also that, for want of apt words 
to express the divine perfec- 
tions and the ardour of devo- 
tion, we must borrow such 
expressions, as approach the 
nearest to our ideas, and speak 
of beauty and love in a tran- 
scendent and mystical sense ; 
that, like a reed torn from its 
native bank, like wax separated 
from its delicious honey, the 
soul of man bewails its disun- 
ion with melancholy music, 
and sheds burning tears, like 
the lighted taper, waiting pas- 
sionately for the moment of its 
extinction; as a disengagement 
from earthly trammels, and 
the means of returning to its 
only beloved. This theology 
prevails also among the learn- 
ed Mussulmans, who avow it 
without reserve.* 

SUPRALAPSARIANS, a 
title given to those Calvinists, 
wiio suppose that God, in the 
decree of election, viewed his 
people merely as creatures, (or 
rather as to be created,) and 
not as fallen creatures, as is 
supposed by the Sublapsarians 
jii.i mentioned. 

The Supralapsarians consi- 
der the divine glory to be the 
great object of the divine de- 



crees, whether in the salvation 
of the elect or the punishment 
of the wicked. Eph. i. 5, 6. 
Prov. xvi. 4. They conceive 
that St. Paul reasons on this 
principle when speaking of Ja- 
cob and Esau — the one elected, 
and the other not — when as yet 
they had « done neither good 
nor evil. 55 That the one was 
chosen and the other rejected 
on the same principle of sove- 
reignty, as the potter appoints 
'* one vessel to honour and 
another to dishonour ;" and 
that he has forbidden our far- 
ther inquiry by the question, 
i€ Who art thou, O man, that 
repliest against God ?" See 
Rom. xi. throughout. Finally, 
they consider this principle to 
harmonize best with the case 
of the elect angels, who, not 
being permitted to sin, could 
be elected only as pure crea- 
tures. 

Bublapsarians on the other 
hand observe, that the elect are 
chosen " out of the world," 
John xvii. 9 — that they are 
called " vessels of mercy/' 
Rom. ix. 23 ; and that our elec- 
tion in Christ Jesus is essen- 
tially connected with the decree 
of predestination to adoption, 
sanctification, and redemption. 
Cah mists, however, are much 
divided on this question. Among 
the Supralapsarians rank Beza* 
Twisse. and Dr. (will ; among 
the Sublapsarians Calvin him- 
self, Bp. bavenant. most of the 



I leography, vol, i. p, 69, &.?. 



SYR 



282 



SYR 



English Reformers, and Mr. 
Toplady.* 

*SWEDENBORGIANS. 

See New Jerusalem Church. 

SYNCRETISTS, the fol- 
lowers of Calixtus. See Calix- 
tins. 

SYNERGISTS, (so called 
from the Greek rvnpyet*, i. e. 
co-operation,} a name given to 
those in the sixteenth century, 
who affirmed that man co-ope- 
rates with divine grace in the 
accomplishment of his salva- 
tion.! See Arminians. 

SYRIAN CHRISTIANS, 
remains of the Eastern churches 
in India, recently visited and 
described by Dr. Buchanan. 
When the Portuguese arrived 
in India, they were surprised to 
find more than a hundred chris- 
tian churches who knew no- 
thing of the Pope, but boasted 
a succession of regular bishops 
derived from the Patriarch of 
Antioch, and continued for 
one thousand three hundred 
years. When the Roman Ca- 
tholics acquired sufficient pow- 
er, they began to persecute; 
and established the Inquisition 
at Goa4 as the cruel instru- 
ment of their power ; an insti- 
tution which subsisted lately 
under the protection of the 
British government. At the 
Roman Catholic Synod of Di- 
amper, the Syrian clergy w ere 



accused of the following sins 
and heresies : " That they had 
married wives ; that they own- 
ed but two sacraments, baptism 
and the Lord's supper ; that 
they neither invoked saints, 
nor worshipped images, nor be- 
lieved in purgatory : and that 
they had no other orders in the 
church, than bishop, priest, and 
deacon." These tenets they 
were required to abjure, and to 
admit the authority of the pope. 
Many of the churches on the 
sea-coast compromised matters 
by acknowledging the pope, 
and admitting their liturgy to 
be purged of what they called 
its errours; but still insisted 
on worshipping in their own 
Syriac language, which they 
continue to this day, and are 
called Syro-Roman churches. 
The number of these churches 
is estimated at ninety thousand. 
The churches in the interi- 
our, however, were not so do- 
cile. They concealed their 
books, fled to the mountains, 
and sought the protection of 
the native princes. These Dr. 
Buchanan visited, under the 
sanction of the Rajah of Tra- 
vancore, in w T hose dominions 
they reside. Dr. Buchanan 
describes the faith of these 
christians as comprehending 
the doctrines of the trinity, the 
atonement, and regeneration. 



* Gill's Body of Divinity, vol. i. p. 299. Doddridge's Lectures, p. 460. 

f Mosheim, vol. iv p. 338. new ed. 

i The inquisition of Goa has been abolished by an order of the Prince 
Regent of Portugal. It is said, however, that the Archbishop retains all the 
power that was lodged in the court of the inquisition. See Mr. Ne well's 
Journal in the Panoplist, May, 1815. 



SYR 



284 



SYR 



More particularly, they believe 
w tnat, in the appointed time, 
thruugh^the disposition of the 
Father and Holy Ghost, the 
Son appeared on earth for the 
salvation of mankind; that he 
was born of the virgin Mary, 
through the means of the Holy 
Ghost, and ^as incarnate God 
and man/'* 

Dr. Buchanan does not 
state the number of these chris- 
tians ; he mentions forty five 
churches under the archbishop 
of Cranganore (where the apos- 
tle Thomas is reported to have 
landed) beside sixty four Syro- 
Roman churches, under the a- 
postolic vicar, f And in another 
place the Dr. states that besides 
the Syrians, there are upwards 
of two hundred thousand chris- 
tians who speak the Malabar 
language.:): 

Dr. Kerr, the senior chap- 
lain of Madras, was sent by the 
government of that presidency, 
in 1806, to investigate the state 
of the Syrian and other chris- 
tians in Malabar and Travan- 
Oore. In his official report he 
observes, »• It has been believ- 
ed that the Syrian christians, 
who have not conformed to the 



church of Rome, held the 
tenets of Nestorius, and that 
they were obliged to leave their 
own country in consequence of 
persecution. However, it ap- 
pears that the creed they now 
hold denies that doctrine, and 
seems to coincide with the 
Athanasian creed, without its 
damnatory clauses. Their num- 
ber is calculated by Dr. Kerr 
at seventy or eighty thousand. 
Many of the Syrian churches 
are destitute of the bible, and 
there is a consequent defect of 
christian knowledge among 
them. The late Dr. Buchan- 
an, who was deeply interest- 
ed in the fate of these chris- 
tians, whom he had visit* U 
was assiduously engaged in 
preparing for the press a Sy- 
riac copy of the scriptures. 
This excellent man died sud- 
denly on the ninth of February, 
1815, at the village of Brox- 
bourue, whither he had retired 
to superintend the printing of 
an edition of the Syriac bible.§ 
This edition, begun by him, is 
continued since his death by 
the British and Foreign Bible 
Society. 



• Buchanan's Researches, p. 117. 
f Ibid p. 125, 1 -6 



iuiu v . *w, x_v, i Christian Observer, 1815, 1816. 

§ Such W is the prevalence of mind over body, of principle over the lan- 
,.->r of disease and decrepitude, that, till almost the hour of his death, Dr. 

rioyed rarely Leas than nine hours daily, in preparing for 

Tesa a Syrian copy of the scriptures. 



t*UOT 



TAN 



285 



THE 



T 



TaBORITES, a denomina- 
tion in the fifteenth century j so 
called from a mountain well 
known in sacred history. They 
not only insisted on reducing 
the religion of Jesus to its pri- 
mitive simplicity, but required 
also that the system of eccle- 
siastical government should be 
reformed in the same manner ; 
the authority of the pope de- 
stroyed, and the form of divine 
worship changed. They main- 
tained the law lulness of defend- 
ing religion by the sword ; and 
some of them are said to have 
expected Christ's personal ap- 
pearance among them. After 
some time, however, they be- 
came more calm and rational, 
and relinquished many opinions, 
which they found to be incon- 
sistent with the spirit and ge- 
nius of the gospel ; and thus 
new modelled were the same 
with those Bohemian brethren, 
who joined Luther and his 
successors at the time of the 
reformation.* 

#TALMUDISTS, those 
Jewish doctors who admit the 
authority of the Talmuds ; 
which are collections of Jew- 
ish traditions and allegorical 
expositions. See Cabbalists. 

TANQUELINIANS, a nu- 
merous sect, so called from Tan- 
quelinus in the twelfth century. 
He is charged with slighting 
the external worship of God, 



and the holy sacraments ; with 
holding clandestine assemblies 
to propagate his opinions : and 
above all with abusing the 
clergy of the Roman Catholic 
church. 

TATIANITES, a denomi- 
nation in the second century ; 
so called from Tatian, a disci- 
ple of Justin Martyr. They 
are, however, more frequently 
distinguished from other sects 
by names relative to the aus- 
terity of their manners. For 
they rejected with horror, all 
the comforts and conveniences 
of life. See Encratites. 

*TEMPLARS, or Knights 
of the Tempxe. See Knights. 

THEODQSIANS. See Jn- 
gelites. This is also the name 
of a numerous sect in Russia, 
which some years since sepa- 
rated from the Pomoryans, 
(which see,) partly on account 
of their not purifying by prayer 
the various articles they pur- 
chase of unbelievers : they are 
very strict in their religion, and 
inveigh bitterly against the na- 
tional church as Antichrist, f 

THEOPASCHITES, a de- 
nomination in the fifth century, 
(which derive their name from 
Oeo$ 9 God, and j™w#<w, to suffer,) 
the followers of Peter the fuller. 
His doctrine is said to have 
differed from that of the Patri- 
passians, by implying the suffer- 
ing of all the Holy Trinity.! 



* Mosheim,* vol. iii. p. 260, 264. 
f Pinkerton's Greek Church, p. 331. 

i Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 417. Priestley's Hist, of Early Opinions,, 
vol, iv. p. 262* 



THE 



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THE 



THEOPHILANTHRO- 
PISTS, (lovers of God and 
man,) a tfect of deists, which 
made its appearance in France, 
amid the storm of the revo- 
lution. The celebrated Thom- 
as i'aine was one of their first 
apostles, and delivered a dis- 
course before them, on the 
principles of this new scheme. 
In September 1796, a kind of 
catechism, or directory, for 
public or social worship, ap- 
peared at Paris, under the ti- 
tle of " Manuel des Thean- 
throphiles;" this breviary was 
received favourably by the pub- 
lic, and the congregations be- 
came very numerous. From 
this book the following parti- 
culars of their tenets are ex- 
tracted : 

U The temple most worthy of 
the Deity is the universe. Ab- 
sorbed sometimes under the 
vault of heaven, in the contem- 
plation of the beauties of na- 
ture, we render its Author the 
homage of adoration and grat- 
itude. Nevertheless, we have 
temples constructed by the 
hands of men, which are more 
commodious for the purpose of 
assembling to hear the lessons 
of his vt isdom. Certain moral 
inscriptions; — a simple altar, 
on which are deposited, as a to- 
ken of gratitude for the benefits 
of the Creator, such fruits and 
flowers as the seasons afford ; — 
and a tribune lor the lecturers, 
— form ihe whole of the orna- 
ments of these tempi 

Of the inscriptions, the first 
u Wc believe in the exis- 



tence of God, and in the im- 
mortality of the soul. 55 This 
is'" placed above the altar, to 
remind us of the two religious 
dogmas, which are the founda- 
tion of our moral precepts." — 
2. « Worship God ; cherish 
your fellow-men ; render your- 
selves useful to your coun- 
try." — 3. « Whatever tends to 
the preservation or perfection 
of man is good, whatever has a 
tendency to destroy or deterio- 
rate him is evil." — 4. "Chil- 
dren, honour your fathers and 
mothers ; obey tl -3m with affec- 
tion; comfort their declining 
years. Fathers and mothers, 
instruct your children." — 5. 
" Wives, esteem your husbands, 
the chiefs of your houses. 
Husbands, love your wives; 
and render yourselves recipro- 
cally happy.'' 

" The assembly sits to hear 
lessons, or discourses, on mor- 
als, on principles of religion, 
of benevolence, and of univer- 
sal salvation : principles equal- 
ly remote from the severity of 
Stoicism, and the supineness of 
Epicurean indulgence. These 
lectures and discourses are di- 
versified by hymns; and the 
assemblies arc held on the first 
day of the week, and on the 
decades. 

" Should we be asked what 
is tin 1 origin of our religion and 
worship! wc reply: Open the 
most ancient books extant, and 
then' examine what was the 
religion, what the worship, of 
the first human beings,, who 
actions are recorded in history. 



THE 



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THE 



It will be seen that their reli- 
gion consisted of what is now 
called natural religion, because 
its object is the> Author of na- 
ture ; and he has engraven it 
upon the hearts of the first men, 
upon ours, and upon those of 
all the inhabitants of the earth. 
This religion, which consists in 
worshipping God, and loving 
our fellow-creatures, is what 
we express by the simple word 
Theophilanthropy : our religion 
is, consequently, that of our 
first parents ; it is also yours, 
as well as ours ; in a word, it is 
the universal religion. As to 
our worship, it is likewise that 
of our first fathers. Even in 
the most ancient writings it 
may be discovered; the exte- 
rior signs, by which they ren- 
dered their homage to the Cre- 
ator, were of the utmost sim- 
plicity. They raised an altar 
of earth ; they offered him, in 
token of their gratitude and 
submission, some of the pro- 
ductions which they had re- 
ceived from his liberal hand. 
Fathers inculcated the practice 
of virtue upon their children; 
and all endeavoured to stimu- 
late each other, under the aus- 
pices of the Deity, to the per- 
formance of their duties. This 
simple worship has been pro- 
fessed by the sages of all na- 
tions, and they have transmit- 
ted it down to modern times, 
unimpaired and uninterrupted. 
" To queries respecting our 
mission, we reply : We hold it 
of God himself; who, in giv- 
ing us power to assist our fel- 



low creatures, has likewise en-, 
dued us with intelligence, for 
our mutual edification; and 
the love of good, to bring us to- 
gether to virtue : of that God, 
in a word, who has given ex- 
perience and wisdom to the 
aged to guide the young, and 
authority to parents to direct 
their children. 

" Should the force of these 
reasons be insufficient to satisfy 
the inquirer, we forbear any 
farther discussion, rather than 
engage in a controversy tend- 
ing to diminish the love of our 
neighbours. Our principles 
being the eternal truth, they 
will subsist, let who may pre- 
tend to support or to suppress 
them ; nor can the efforts of the 
wicked ever prevail against 
them. Let us rest, therefore, 
firmly attached to them, with- 
out attacking or defending any 
religious system : remembering 
that such discussions have nev- 
er been attended with good; 
but, on the contrary, have fre- 
quently dyed the earth with hu- 
man blood. Let us lay aside 
systems, and apply ourselves 
to doing good, which is the on- 
ly road to happiness. 55 

The Theophilanthropists are 
now said to be nearly extinct; 
they arose, as already observed, 
out of the vortex of the revolu- 
tion, which had engulphed all 
institutions, moral and divine : 
during that gloomy period, 
when the demagogues had for- 
bidden the exercise of public 
worship, when the churches 
were converted into heathen 



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Till 



temples, and when <• Death is 
an eternal sleep," being in- 
scribed upon the graves, had 
removed for a time the hope of 
immortality from the minds of 
men. When Buonaparte re- 
opened the churches, Theophi- 
lanthropy became neglected, 
and is now scarcely known 
otherwise than by its name.* 

*TI1E0S0PHISTS, a sect 
of chemical philosophers, who 
pretended to derive their occult 
science from divine illumina- 
tion, whence they have been 
called Illuminati, but most usu- 
allv Rosicrusians ; which see. 

*THERAPEUT.E, a sect 
of Jews, generally considered 
as a branch of the Essenes, 
which see. They affected ex- 
traordinary silence and deco- 
rum in their worship, and re- 
markable austerity in their 
manners. Some of the sect 
probably verged to Paganism, 
and others to Christianity ; 
which has occasioned circum- 
stances which the learned have 
found great difficulty in recon- 
riling.f 

THIBETIANS. The Grand 
Lama is at once the High 
Priest and the visible object 
of adoration, to this nation, to 
the hordes of wandering Tar- 
tars, and to the prodigious pop- 
ulation of China. He resides 
at Patolii a vast palace on a 
mountain near the banks of the 
Burampooter, aboul seven miles 
from Lahassa, The fool of the 
mountain is surrounded by 

• Manti I of the Tbeophibuithrqpif ts. 
•f Calmet'i Dictionary, vol. ii. 



twenty thousand Lamas, in z.U 
tendance on their Sovereign 
Pontiff, who is considered as 
the vicegerent of the Deity on 
earth ; and tiie more remote 
Tartars are said to regard him 
absolutely as the Deity him- 
self, and call him God 9 the ever- 
lasting Father of heaven. They 
believe him to be immortal, 
and endowed with all knowl- 
edge and virtue. Every year 
they come up from different 
parts to worship, and make 
rich offerings at his shrine. 
Even the emperor of China, 
who is a Mantchou Tartar, 
does not fail in acknowledg- 
ments to him in his religious 
capacity ; and entertains in the 
palace of Pekin an inferioui 
Lama, deputed as his nuncic 
from Thibet. The grand La 
ma is only to be seen in a se 
cret place of his palace, amids 
a great number of lamps* sit 
ting cross-legged on a cushion, 
and decked all over with gold 
and precious stones ; while, 
a distance, the people prostrat 
themselves before him ; it be 
ing not lawful for any so mucl 
as to kiss his feet. He return? 
not the least sign of respect 
nor ever speaks even to the 
greatest princes ; but only lay* 
his hand upon their heads, ihk 
they are fully pursuaded tha 
they thereby receive a full for- 
giveness of their sins. 

The SunniasseSf or Indiai 
pilgrims, often visit Thibet as 
a holy place ; and the Lama 

E vims' Sketch, p. 17. 13th Ed. 



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289 



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entertains a body of two or 
three hundred in his pay. Be- 
sides his religious influence and 
authority, he is possessed of 
unlimited power throughout his 
dominions, which are very ex- 
tensive. The inferior Lamas, 
who form the most numerous, 
as well as the most powerful 
body in the state, have the 
priesthood entirely in their 
hands; and besides, fill up 
many monastic orders, which 
are held in great veneration 
among them. The whole coun- 
try, like Italy, abounds with 
priests ; and they entirely sub- 
sist on the rich presents sent 
them from the utmost extent of 
Tartary, from the empire of 
the Great Mogul, and from al- 
most all parts of the Indies. 

The opinion of those, who 
are reputed the most orthodox 
among the Thibetians, is, that 
when the grand Lama seems 
to die, either of old age or in- 
firmities, his soul, in fact, only 
quits a crazy habitation, to look 
for another, younger or better ; 
and is discovered again in the 
body of some child, by certain 
tokens, known only to the La- 
mas, or priests, in which order 
he always appears. 

Almost all the nations of the 
East, except the Mahometans, 
believe the metempsychosis, or 
transmigration of the soul, as 
the most important article of 
their faith ; esp cially the in- 
habitants of Thibet and Ava, 
the Peguans, the Siamese, the 

* Annual Register for 1780, p. 62. 



greater part of the Chinese and 
Japanese, and the Moguls and 
Calmucks. According to their 
doctrine, the soul no sooner 
leaves her old habitation, than 
she enters a new one. The 
Dailai Lama, being a divine 
person, can find no better lodg- 
ing than the body of his suc- 
cessor ; or the Foe, residing in 
the Dailai Lama, which passes 
to his successor: andthisbeing 
a god, to whom all things are 
known, the grand Lama is 
therefore acquainted with every 
thing which happened during 
his residence in his former 
body. 

This religion, which was ear- 
ly adopted in a large part of 
the globe, is said to have been 
of three thousand years stand- 
ing ; and neither time, nor the 
influence of men, has had the 
power of shaking the authority 
of the grand Lama. This the- 
ocracy, which extends as fully 
to temporal as to spiritual con- 
cerns, is professed all over 
Thibet and Mongalia ; is al- 
most universal in Greater and 
Lesser Bucharia, and several 
provinces of Tartary ; has 
some followers in the kingdom 
of Cassimere, in India, and is 
the predominant religion of 
China.* 

Ithasbeen observed, "that the 
religion of Thibet is the coun- 
terpart of the Roman Catholic, 
since the inhabitants of that 
country use holy water and a 
singing service : they also offer 



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alms, prayers, and sacrifices 
for the dead. They have a 
vast number of convents filled 
with monks and friars, amount- 
ing to thirty thousand ; and 
confessors, chosen by their su- 
periors. They use beads ; 
wear the mitre and cap like the 
bishops; and their Dailai Lama 
is nearly the same among; them 
as the sovereign pontiff is 
among the Romanists."* See 
Chinese. 

*THOMISTS, the followers 
of St. Thomas Aquinas, in op- 
position to the celebrated Dana. 
Scotus, in the fourteenth centu- 
ry, on the doctrines of grace, 
and on some metaphysical spec- 
ulations.! See Scoti&ts. 

TRASKITES, the followers 
of Mr. J. Trask, 1634. His 
opinions were similar to the 
Sabbatarians ;$ which see. 

TRIFORMIANI,a denomi- 
nation which appeared about 
the year 408 ; so called from 
the Latin tria forma. They 
maintained that the divine na- 
ture was one and the same in 
the three persons together; but 
not complete in either sepa- 
rately .§ 

TRINITARIANS, a name 
applied to all who profess to 
believe the doctrine of the 



Trinity, in opposition to Ari* 
ans, Socinians, and all Anti- 
trinitarians. " The word Trin- 
ity," says Mr. Evans, " is not 
to be found in the bible, but is 
a scholastic term, derived from 
the Latin word trinitas, denot- 
ing threefold unity." 

Theophihis of Antioch, a 
learned writer of J lie second 
century, is said to have been 
the first who made use of the 
word Trinity to express the dis- 
tinction of what divines call 
persons in the godhead. || 

Dr. Doddridge remarks, 
speaking of the ancient writers 
upon the Trinity, that " after 
the time of the celebrated coun- 
cil of Nice,5f they ran into 
several subtleties of expression, 
in which one would imagine 
they studied rather to conceal 
than to explain their senti- 
ments ; yet they grew so warm 
upon the subject, as to anathe- 
matize, oppose, and murder 
each other on account of some 
unscriptural phrases,' much to 
the dishonour of their common 
profession." 

The following is a brief ac- 
couni of the opinions of a num- 
ber of learned modern divines, 
concerning the doctrine of the 
Trinity. 



* Payne 9 ! Epitome of History, vol, ii. p» 33. Guthrie's Geopraphy (cd . 
1788) p 660. Raynal's Hist, of the Indians, vol. ii. p. 219. 

f Mosheim, vol, iii n 365. * Pagit's Heresiography, p 135. 

'frame's Ductor Historicus, voL ii ]) 170. 
|| See ftfaclaine's Chronol Tables to Mosheim's Eccles Hist. 

• i ral Council, assembled By t!*e Emperor Con 9 tan tine at 
. in the ye ^rius was condemned, und certain measures 

I upon to calm the religious tumults that had long troubled the church. 
Hut the spirit of dissension and controversy triumphed both over the <l- 
of the Council, and the authority of the Bmp Mosheim's E< 

vol. i. p. 403. 



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291 



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Dr. Wateiland, Dr. Tay- 
lor, with the rest of the Atha- 
nasians, assert three proper 
distinct persons,* entirely 
equal and independent of each 
other; yet making but one and 
the same being. 

Mr. Baxter seems, as some 
of the schoolmen did, to have 
thought the three divine per- 
sons, to be one and the same 
God, under standing, willing, 
and beloved by himself, or wis- 
dom, power, and love, which 
he thinks illustrated by the 
three essential formalties, (as 
he calls them,) in the soul of 
man ; viz. power, intellect, and 
will, and in the sun, motion, 
light and heat. 

Mr. Howe seems to suppose, 
that there are three distinct, 
eternal spirits, or distinct, intel- 
ligent hypostaces, each having 
his own distinct, singular, in- 
telligent nature, united in such 
an inexplicable manner, as that, 
upon account of their perfect 
harmony, consent, affection, 
and self-consciousness, they 
may he called the one God, as 
properly as the different cor- 
poreal, sensitive, and intellec- 
tual natures united, may be 
called one man. 

Dr. Thomas Burnet main- 
tains, one self-existent and two 

* According to Bishop Sherlock, " .Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are as real- 
ly distinct persons, as Peter, James, and John ; each of whom is God. We 
must allow each person to be a God.'" These three "infinite minds are distin- 
guished just as three created minds are, by self-consciousness. And by mutual 
consciousness each person of these has the whole wisdom, power, and goodness 
of the other two persons.'* Vindication of the Trinity. Obs. on the Vind. p. 
19, 20. quoted by Mr. Worcester in his Trinitarian Review, No i. p. 8. 

f This seems, says Dr Doddridge, to have been Archbishop Tillotson's opinion. 

* Considerations on the Trinity, p. 7. quoted by Yates in his Keplv to 
Wardlaw, p. 126. . 



dependent beings ; but asserts, 
that the two latter arc so unit- 
ed to, and inhabited by the for- 
mer, that by virtue of that 
union, divine perfections may 
be ascribed, and divine wor- 
ship paid to therp. 

Bishop Pearson, bishop Bull, 
and Dr. Owen, are of opinion, 
that, though God the Father 
is the fountain of the Deity, the 
whole divine nature is commu- 
nicated from the Father to the 
Son, and from both to the Spi- 
rit ; yet so as that the Father 
and Son are not separate, nor 
separable from the divinity ; 
but do still exist in it, and are 
most intimately united to it. 

Dr. Wallis thought the dis- 
tinctions in the Trinity were 
only modal ;f and thus states 
his doctrine, " a divine person 
is only a mode, a respect, or 
relation of God to his creatures. 
He beareth to his creatures 
these three relations, modes, or 
respects, that he is their crea- 
tor, their redeemer, and their 
sanctifier. This is what we 
mean, and all we mean, when 
we say, God is three persons.":]: 
See Sabcllians. 

Dr. Clarke's scheme is, that 
there is a supreme Father and 
two subordinate, derived and 
dependent beings, the Son and 



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Holy Spirit ; but he waives 
calling Christ a creature, as 
the ancient Arians did ; and 
principally on that account 
disclaims the charge of Arian- 
ism. See Pre-existents. 

Dr. Watts maintained one 
supreme God, dwelling in the 
pre-existent human soul of 
Christ, whereby he is entitled 
to all divine honours. See 
Fre-existents. 

Mr. Ward! aw maintains, 
that the three persons in the 
Godhead arc distinct, but in 
using the term persons, he ex- 
plicitly disavows all pretensions 
to understanding the nature of 
the distinction ; and affirms, 
that by making use of it, he 
means no more than that in the 
unity of the Godhead there is a 
distinction, which, while he be- 
lieves it to exist, he cannot 
pretend to explain or to com- 
prehend.* 

Dr. Jeremy Taylor observes, 
that, w he who goes about to 
speak of the mysteries of the 
Trinity, and docs it by words 
and names of man's invention, 
talking of essences and exist- 
ences, hypostases and person- 
alities, priorities in co-equali- 
ties, &£• and unity in plural- 
ities, may amuse himself, and 
build a tabernacle in bis head, 
and talk something, he knows 
no1 what ; but the good mint 

that feels the power of the 

* See Ward law's nojily to Yates. 

| Doddridge's Lectures, p. 401—403 Baxter's Works, vol. ii. p 1. Howe's 
Works, vol. iii. Bull's Sermons, vol. iv. p 829. Pearson on the Creed, p. 154. 
n on Uic Hebrews, vol. i. Tillotson's Works. Jeremy Taylor on John 
vi. 17. 

Mosheim, vol. 1. p. 473. Barclay's Dictionary, article Trithcista. 



Father, and to whom the Son 
is become wisdom, sanctifica- 
tion, and redemption ; in whose 
heart the love of the spirit of 
God is shed abroad — this man, 
though he understands nothing 
of what is unintelligible, yet he 
alone truly understands the 
christian doctrine of the Trin- 

ity.-f 

The limits of this work will 
not admit of giving a sketch of 
the various arguments, by 
which these statements are sup- 
ported ; some of them may be 
found under the articles Arians, 
Anthanasians, Pre-existents, &c„ 

TRITHEISTS, a denomi- 
nation in the sixth century, 
whose chief was John Ascus- 
nage, a Syrian philosopher, and 
at the same time a Monophy- 
site. He imagined in the Dei- 
ty three natures, or substances, 
absolutely equal, and joined to- 
gether by no common essence : 
to which opinion his adversa- 
ries gave the name of Trithc- 
ism, or the worship of three 
gods. One of the defenders of 
this doctrine was John Philo- 
ponus, an Alexandrian philoso- 
pher and grammarian of the 
highest reputation ; and hence 
he was considered by many as 
the author of this sect. This 
name has also been applied, by 
way of reproach, to certain 
Trinitarians.] See Alhanasiuns. 



VAL 



293 



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TSCHERNABOLTSI, 

a Russian sect which arose in 
1775 among the old believers 
of Staradubofsk, from whom 
they differ in the three fol- 
lowing points. First, they 
refuse to take an oath, be- 
cause they say Christ forbids 
swearing of every kind. Sec- 
ondly, they refuse to shave their 
beards. Thirdly, they refuse to 
pray for the emperor and im- 
perial family, according to the 
form prescribed by the holy 
synod.* 

*TSCHURSLVINIKS, the 
friends of union among the Ras- 
kolniks, who attempt to propa- 
gate their conciliatory princi- 
ples among the different sects, 
and on this account are perse- 
cuted by the zealous men of all 
parties.f 



*TUNKERS, a congrega- 
tion of seventh-day baptists at 
Ephrata in Pennsylvania.^ See 

DlLlll'tCTS 

TURLUPINS, a sect which 
appeared about the year 1372, 
in Savoy and Dauphiny. They 
taught, that when a man is ar- 
rived at a certain state of per- 
fection, he is freed from all 
subjection to the divine law ; 
which we call Antinomianism. 
John Dabantonne was the au- 
thor of this denomination. 
Some think they were called 
Turlupins because they usually 
abode in desolate places, expos- 
ed to wolves, lupu They call- 
ed themselves the Fraternity of 
the poor; but they were com- 
monly called Brethren of the 
free spirit ; which see.§ 



U $ V 



VALENTINIANS, a 

branch of the Gnostics, which 
sprang up in the second centu- 
ry ; so called from their leader, 
Valentinus. His principles 
were, generally speaking, the 
same with those of the Gnostics, 
whose name he assumed ; yet 
in many things he entertained 
opinions peculiar to himself. 
He placed, for instance, in the 
pleroma (so the Gnostics called 
the habitation of the Deity) thir- 



ty aions, of which the one half 
were male, and the other, fe- 
male. To these he added four 
others, which were of neither 
sex ; viz. Horus, (who guarded 
the borders of the pleroma,) 
Christ, the Holy Ghost, and 
Jesus. The youngest of the 
aims, called Sophia, (i. e. wis- 
dom 9 J conceived an ardent de- 
sire of comprehending the na- 
ture of the supreme Being, and 
by the force of this propensity 



* Pinkerton's Greek Church, p. 204. f Ibid. p. 334. 

* Evans' Sketch, 13th edit. p. 257. 

§ Broughton, vol. ii. p. 474. Dufresnoy's Chronological Tables, vol. ii. p. 243. 



VAL 



294 



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brought forth a daughter, nam- 
ed Achamoth. Achamoth be- 
ing exiled from the pleroma, fell 
down into the rude and undi- 
gested mass of matter, to which 
she gave a certain arrange- 
ment ; and by the assistance of 
Jesus, produced the Demiurge, 
the Lord and Creator of all 
things. This Demiurge sepa- 
rated the subtile, or animal mat- 
ter, from that of the grosser, or 
mere terrestrial kind. Out of 
the former he created the heav- 
ens ; and out of the latter, this 
terraqueous globe. He also 
made man, in whose composi- 
tion the subtile and the grosser 
matter were united in equal por- 
tions ; but Achamoth, the mo- 
ther of Demiurge, added to 
them a spiritual and celestial 
substance — the immortal soul. 
The Creator of this world, 
who was the God of the Jews, 
according to Valentinus, arriv- 
ed by degrees to that pitch of 
arrogance, that lie either imag- 
ined himself to he God alone, 
or at least was desirous that 
mankind should consider him 
as such. For this purpose he 
sent forth prophets to (lie Jew- 
ish nation, to whom he affect- 
ed to be the supreme Being; 
and the Other angels* who pre- 
side over different parts of the 
world, imitated his ambition* 
To correel this arrogance of 
Demiurge, and to teach man- 
kind the true and supreme !V- 
ity, Christ appeared upon earth, 
composed of an animal and 
spiritual substance, and clothed 

• Affosheim, vol. i. p. 135—183. 



moreover with an aerial body, 
which passed through the womb 
of Mary untainted. Jesus, one 
of the supreme aions, was sub- 
stantially united to him when 
he was baptized in Jordan, 
The God of the Jews, when he 
perceived his empire shaken by 
this divine man, caused him to 
be apprehended and nailed to 
the cross. But before Christ 
submitted to this punishment, 
not only Jesus, the Son of God, 
but also the rational soul of 
Christ, ascended up on high ; 
so that only the animal soul 
and the ethereal body suffered 
crucifixion. Those who aban- 
doned false deities, and the God 
of the Jews, and, living accord- 
ing to the precepts of Christ, 
submit the animal and sensual 
soul to the discipline of reason, 
shall be finally happy. Their 
rational and sensual soul shall 
ascend to the seats of bliss, 
which border on the pleroma. 
And when all souls are purified 
thoroughly, and separated from 
matter, then a raging fire shall 
dissolve the frame of this cor- 
poreal world. 

The Yalentinians were di- 
vided into many branches.* 
See Heraclemiites, PtoltmitCS, 
Secundums, <Sx. 

VANISTS, so (ailed from 
Sir Henry Vane, who was ap- 
pointed govcrnour of New Eng- 
land in the year 1636 ; and is 
said to have been at the head 
ol" the party there, who were 
charged with maintaining An- 



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295 



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tinomian tenets.* See dnti- 
nomians. 

VAUDOIS. See Waldenses. 

UBIQUITARIANS derived 
their name from maintain- 
ing that the body of Jesus 
Christ is ubique, every where, 
and in every place. Brentius 
is said to have first advanced 
this sentiment about the year 
1560. The Ubiquitarians were 
not quite agreed among them- 
selves ; some holding that 
Christ, even during his mortal 
life, was every where, and oth- 
ers dating the ubiquity of his 
body from the time of his as- 
cension.f 

UCKEWALLISTS, a party 
of Mennonists, followers of 
Ucke*Walles, a native of Fries- 
land, who published his senti- 
ments in the year 1637. He 
entertained a favourable opin- 
ion of the eternal state of Ju- 
das, and the rest of Christ's 
murderers. To give an air of 
plausibility to this sentiment, 
he invented the following hypo- 
thesis : that the period of time, 
which extended from the birth 
of Christ to the descent of the 
Holy Ghost, was a time of 
darkness ; during which the 
Jews were entirely destitute of 
divine light ; and that, of con- 



sequence, the sins committed 
during this interval were in a 
great measure excusable.^ 

VERSCHORISTS, the fol- 
lowers of Jacob Verschoor, a 
native of Flushing, who pub- 
lished his sentiments in the 
year 1680, much resembling 
those of the Hattemists ; which 

UNITARIANS, a compre- 
hensive term, including all who 
believe the Deity to subsist in 
one person only. The Socinians 
have claimed an exclusive right 
to this title, but unjustly, as 
Arians, Humanitarians, and all 
Anti-trinitarians have an equal 
right to the denomination.-— 
Even some Trinitarians have 
claimed it: "but," it is ev- 
ident, "this is to introduce 
a confusion of terms ; since, 
as has been observed, Unitarian 
is not opposed to Tritheist or 
Polytheist : it does not denote 
a believer in one God only ; 
but a believer in God in one 
person only, in opposition to the 
Trinitarians." 

The chief article in the reli- 
gious system of the class of 
Unitarian Socinians || is, that 
Christ was a mere man. But 
they consider him as the great 
instrument in the hands of God 



* Calamy's Vbridg. vol. i. p. 98. 

f Broughton, Hist. Diet. vol. ii. p. 481. $ Mosheim, vol. v. p. 8. 

§ Mosheim, vol iv p. 552. 

!| Mr. Yates observes, that, <c When our opponents call themselves Trinita- 
rians, they do not mean to intimate, that they believe in three Gods ; nor 
when we call ourselves Unitarians do we intend that term to signify that we 
believe in one God only. The former term was first in use, having been adopted 
by the Trinitarians themselves to express their belief, that there is a trinity of 
persons in the Godhead. The latter was invented as a correlative appellation 
to designate those who believe, that there is in the Godhead a unity of persons, 
that is, only one person. See Yates' Sequel, p. 15« 



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of reversing all the effects of 
the fall ; as the object of all 
the prophecies from Moses to 
his own time j as the great 
bond of union to virtuous and 
good men. who, as Christians, 
make one body in a peculiar 
sense; as introduced into the 
world without a human father;^ 
as having communications with 
God, and speaking and acting 
from God in such a manner as 
no other man ever did, and, 
therefore, having the form of 
God, and being the Son of God 
in a manner peculiar to him- 
self: as the means of spread- 
ing divine and saving knowl- 
edge to all the world of man- 
kind ; as, under God, the head 
of all things to his church ; and 
as the Lord of life, having pow- 
er and authority from God to 
raise the dead, and judge the 
world at the last day. They 
suppose that the great object 
of the whole scheme of revela- 
tion was to teach men how to 
live here, so as to be happy here- 
after; and that the particular 
doctrines there taught, as hav- 
ing a connexion with this great 
object, are those of the unity 
of God, his universal presence 
and inspection, his placability 
to repenting sinners, and the 
certainty of a life of retribution 
after death. 

This denomination argue 
ilms against the divinity and 
pre-cxistence ofChrtsI : — The 
Bcriptun Lin the cleai 



and most express declarations 
that there is but one true God, 
and forbid the worship of any 
other. Exod. xx. 3. Deut. vi. 
4. Mark xii. 29. 1 Cor. viii. 
6. Ephes. iv. 5. In the pro- 
phetic accounts which preceded 
the birth of Christ, he is spoken 
of as a man highly favoured of 
God, and gifted with extraor- 
dinary powers from him, and 
nothing more. He was fore- 
told, Gen. xxii. 8. to be of the 
seed of Abraham. Deut. xviiu 
A prophet like unto Moses. 
Psal. exxvii. 11. Of the family 
of David, Sfc. As a man, as a 
prophet, though of the highest 
order, the Jews constantly and 
uniformly looked for their Mes- 
siah. Christ never claimed any 
honour or respect on his own 
account, but such as belonged 
only to a prophet, an extraor- 
dinary messenger of God. He 
in the most decisive terms de- 
clares the Lord God to be one 
God, and the sole object of 
worship. He always prayed to 
him as his God and Father. 
He always spoke of himself as 
receiving his doctrine and pow- 
er from him, and again and 
again disclaimed having any 
power of his own, John v. 19, 
21 , so, &c. xiv. i o. He direct- 
ed men to worship the Father. 
Without the least intimation 
that himself or any other per- 
son whomsoever was the object 
of worship. I, uke xi. 1, 2, 
Matt. iv. 10. John xvi. 23. 



m Dft Prk . Ei in ; ham, and other up the miracu! 

pt ion, and with kroductorj thew and Luke* See 

Humai 



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Christ cannot be that God 
to whom prayer is to be offered, 
because he is the high priest of 
that God, to make intercession 
for us. Heb. vii. 25. The a- 
postles speak the same lan- 
guage, representing the Father 
as the only true God, and Christ 
as a man, the servant of God, 
who raised him from the dead, 
and gave him all the power of 
which he is possessed, as a re- 
ward for his obedience. Acts 
ii. 22, S3. The apostle directed 
men to pray to God the Father 
only. Phil. iv. 20. Rom. xvi. 
27, &c. 

This denomination maintain 
that repentance and a good life 
are of themselves sufficient to 
recommend us to the divine 
favour; and that nothing is 
necessary to make us in all sit- 
uations the objects of his fa- 
vour, but such moral conduct 
as he has made us capable of; 
that Christ did nothing by his 
death, or in any other way, to 
render God merciful to sinners; 
but that God is, of his own ac- 
cord, disposed to forgive men 
their sins, without any other 
condition than the sinner's re- 
pentance. Isaiah lv. 7. Ezek. 
xviii. 27. Above all, the beau- 
tiful and affecting parable of 
the prodigal son, (Luke xv.) is 
thought most decisive, that re- 
pentance is all our heavenly 



Father requires, to restore us 
to his favour. 

The Unitarians of all ages 
have adopted the sentiments of 
Pelagius, with respect to hu- 
man nature.* 

The name of Unitarians is 
also claimed by all those chris- 
tians who believe there is but 
one God, and that this one 
God is the Father only, and 
not a trinity, consisting of 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. 
They may or may not believe 
in Christ's pre-existence. The 
term is thus defined by the 
celebrated Dr. Price, and ap- 
plied by him to what he calls a 
middle scheme between Atha- 
nasianism and Socinianism. 
His plan, and a few of the ar- 
guments he brings to support 
it, may therefore be inserted 
under this appellation. — It 
teaches, that Christ descended 
to this earth from a state of pre- 
existent dignity ; that he was 
in the beginning with God, and 
that by him God made the 
world ; and that by a humilia- 
tion of himself, which has no 
parallel, and by which he has 
exhibited an example of benev- 
olence that passes knowledge, 
he took on him flesh and blood, 
and passed through huirtan life, 
enduring all its sorrows, in or- 
der to bless and save a sinful 
race. By delivering himself up 



* Priestley's Eccles. Hist. vol. i. p. 143. History of Early Opinions, vol. 
}• p. 10 — 51 vol. iii. p. 7 — 27. vol. iv. p, 67. Corruptions of Christianity, vol. 
i. p. 135. Disquisitions, vol. i. p. 376. Institutes, vol. ii. p 281. Appeal, 19 
— 47. Theological Repository, vol. iv. p. 20—436. Lindsey's View of the 
Unitarian Doctrine, &c. p. 355. Vindici^e Pricstleianse, p. 223—227. -Apology, 
p. 186. Answer to Robinson's Plea. 
39 



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to death, he acquired the power 
of delivering us from death. 
By offering himself a sacrifice 
on the cross, he vindicated the 
honour of those laws which sin- 
ners had broken, and rendered 
the exercise of favour to them 
consistent with the holiness and 
wisdom of God's government ; 
and by lus resurrection from 
the dead, he proved the efficacy 
and acceptableness of his sac- 
rifice. Christ not only de- 
clared, but obtained the avail- 
ableness of repentance to par- 
don ; and became by his inter- 
position, not only the conveyer, 
but the author and means of 
our future immortality.^ This 
%vas a service so great, that no 
meaner agent could be equal to 
it, and in consequence of it 
offers of full favour are made to 
all. No human being will be 
excluded from salvation, ex- 
cept through his own fault; 
and every truly virtuous man 
from the beginning to the end 
of lime, let his country or reli- 
gion be what it will, is made 
sure of being raised from death, 
and of bcinr; made happy for- 
ever. In all this the Supreme 
1) i v is to be considered as the 
first cause; and Christ as his 
gilt to fallen man, and as act- 
ing under that eternal and self- 
ev stent Being, compared with 
whom no other being is either 
great or good ; and of whom] 
Bfi ' through whom, and to whom 
are all things* 

Our learned author argues in 



this manner to prove the pre- 
existence of Christ. The his- 
tory of our Saviour, as given in 
the new testament, and the 
events of his life and ministry, 
answer best to the opinion of 
the superiority of his nature. 
Of this kind are his introduc- 
tion into the world by a mirac- 
ulous conception ; the annun- 
ciations from heaven at his 
baptism and transfiguration, 
proclaiming him the Son of 
God, and ordering all to hear 
him ; his giving himself out as 
come from God to shed his 
hlood for the remission of sins; 
his perfect innocence, and sin- 
less example ; the wisdom by 
which he spake as never man 
spake; his knowledge of the 
hearts of men ; his intimation 
that he was greater than Abra- 
ham, Moses, David, or even 
angels ; those miraculous pow- 
ers by which, with a command 
over nature like that which 
first produced it, he ordered 
tempests to cease, and gave 
eyes to the blind, limbs to the 
maimed, reason to the frantic, 
health to the sick, and life to 
the dead ; his surrender of him- 
self to the enemies who took 
away his life, after demonstrat- 
ing that it was his own consent, 
which gave them power over 
him ; the signs which accom- 
panied his sufferings and death ; 
his resurrection from the dead, 
and triumphant ascension into 
heaven. 

There are in the new testa- 



* This author considers the destruction of being as the main circumstance 
in the punishment of the wicked- 



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299 



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ment express and direct dec- 
larations of the pre-existent 
dignity of Christ. John i. 1, 
compared with the 14th verse : 
John iii. 13; vi. 62 ; viii. 58 ; 
John xvii. 5. 2 Cor. viii. 9. 
Phil. ii. 5, and following verses. 
There remain to he quoted the 
texts which mention the crea- 
tion of the world by Jesus 
Christ. In Heb. i. 2, we read 
that God hath in these last days 
spoken to lis by his Son, whom 
he hath appointed heir of all 
things, by whom also he made 
the worlds. John i. 3 — 10. Col. 
i. 16. 

The doctrine of God\s form- 
ing the world by the agency of 
the Messiah gives a credibility 
to the doctrine of his interposi- 
tion to save it, and his future 
agency in renewing it : be- 
cause it leads us to conceive of 
him as standing in a particular 
relation to it. and having an in- 
terest in it. 

The doctrine of Christ's sim- 
ple humanity, when viewed in 
connexion with the scripture 
account of his exaltation, im- 
plies an inconsistency and im- 
probability, which falls little 
short of an impossibility. The 
scriptures tell us that Christ, 
after his resurrection, became 
Lord of the dead and living ; 
that he had all power given him 
in heaven and earth ; that an- 
gels were made subject to him ; 
that he is hereafter to raise the 
dead and judge the world, and 
finish the scheme of the divine 
moral government with respect 
to the earth, by conferring eter- 



nal happiness on all the virtu- 
ous, and punishing the wicked 
with everlasting destruction* 
Can it be believed that a mere 
man could be advanced at once 
so high as to be above angels, 
and to be qualified to rule and 
judge the world? Do not all 
things rise gradually, one ac- 
quisition laying the foundation 
for another, and perhaps for 
higher acquisitions ? The pow- 
er, in particular, which the 
scriptures teach us Christ pos- 
sesses, of raising to life all who 
have died, and all who will 
die, is equivalent to the power 
of creating a world. How in- 
consistent is it to allow that he 
is to restore and renew this 
world, and yet to deny he 
might have been God's agent 
in originally forming it ! 

This plan coincides with the 
foregoing Unitarian system, in 
rejecting the trinity of the 
Godhead ; the real divinity of 
Christ ; his being a proper ob- 
ject of prayer; the imputation 
of Adam's sin to his posterity ; 
and such a total corruption of 
our nature by original sin, as 
deprives us of free-will, and 
subjects us, before we have 
committed actual sin, to the 
displeasure of God and future 
punishment ; and also in re- 
jecting absolute predestination, 
particular redemption, invinci- 
ble grace, and justification by 
faith alone. It differs from the 
foregoing in two respects : — 
(1.) In asserting Christ to have 
been more than any human be- 
ing. — (2) In asserting that he 



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300 



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Christ, who had this divine ray 
within him, might be called 
God, but not as a distinct per- 
son from the Father. They are, 
moreover, charged with saying, 
that the Father, being in Christ, 
suffered and died in him also ; 
and from this they got the name 
of Patripassians 9 which denomi- 
nation has been also applied to 
the Sabellians,Monarchians, and 
others ; which sec.f 

UNITAS FRATRUM, i, e. 
the Unity of the Brethren ; or 
Fratres Unitatis, the Unit- 
ed Brethren, is the denomina- 
tion of a society of christians, 
usually called Moravians, be- 
cause they first arose as a dis- 
tinct church in Moravia ; and 
sometimes Hernhutters, from 
one of their first settlements in 
Hernhutt. 

In their history, as given by 
Crantz, their historian, they are 
distinguished into ancient and 
modern. The former refers to 
them before their settlement in 
Upper Lusatia in 1772 ; the 
latter after it. 

In an address on their behalf 
to the English privy council in 
1715, they are called The re- 
formed episcopal churches, first 
settled in Bohemia, and since 
forced by the persecutions of 
their enemies to retire into the 
Gretoter Poland, and Polish 
Prussia. In an address also 
from themselves to the church 
of England, in the time of 
Charles II. they claim to have 



took upon him human nature 
for a higher purpose than mere- 
ly re\ealing to mankind the 
will of God, and instructing 
them in their duty, and in the 
doctrines of religion.^ 

The celebrated Dr. Priestley 
calls those Philosophical Unita- 
rians, who, in the early ages of 
Christianity, explained the doc- 
trines concerning Christ ac- 
cording to the principles of the 
philosophy of those times. As 
the sun was supposed to emit 
rays and draw them into him- 
self again, so the divine Being, 
of whom thev imagined the sun 
to be an image, was supposed 
to emit a kind of efflux, or di- 
vine ray, to which they some- 
times gave the name of logos, 
which might be attached to any 
particular substance or person, 
and then be drawn into the di- 
vine Being again. They sup- 
posed that the union between 
this divine logos and the man 
Christ Jesus was only tempo- 
rary : for they held that this di- 
vine efflux, which, like a beam 
of light, from the sun, went out 
of God, and was attached to 
the person of Christ, to enable 
him to work miracles while he 
was on earth, was drawn into 
God again when he ascended 
into heaven, and had no more 
occasion to exert a miraculous 
power. Some of them might go 
so fiii- as to say, that since this 
ray was properly divine, and 
the divinity of the Father, 

* Price's Sermons, p. 153 — 19? Price's Dissertations, p. 134. 
| Priest ley's History of Early Opinions, vol. iii. p. 376. vol. iv. p, 2f9. 
Priestley's Eccles. Hist.' vol. i. p. 296, 297. 



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301 



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been "free for almost 700 years 
from the encroachments of the 
Romish see;" and speak of 
Huss, and Jerome of Prague, as 
their famous martyrs, by whose 
blood the church of Bohemia 
had been watered and enrich- 
ed. By the Bohemian church, 
however, can only be meant the 
christians, who resided in that 
country; for Mr. Crantz places 
the beginning of the church of 
The United Brethren in the 
year 1457, and represents it as 
rising out of the scattered re- 
mains of the followers of Huss. 
M This people, in order to free 
themselves from the. tyranny 
of Rome, had applied in 1450 
for a re-union with the Greek 
church, of which they had been 
anciently a part, and their re- 
quest was cheerfully granted; 
but on the taking of Constan- 
tinople by the Turks, about two 
years after, which put an end 
to the Greek empire, this pro- 
posed junction came to nothing. 
After this they resolved to es- 
tablish a community among 
themselves, and to edify one 
another from the w 7 ord of God. 
But as this would expose them 
in their own country to perse- 
cution, they obtained permis- 
sion to withdraw to a part of 
the king's domain, on the boun- 
dary between Silesia and Mo- 
ravia, to settle there, and regu- 
late their worship according to 
their own conscience and judg- 
ment. 

" In the year 1457, they as- 
sumed the above denomination 
of United Brethren, and bound 



themselves to a stricter church 
discipline, resolving to suffer all 
things for conscience's sake; 
and instead of defending them- 
selves, as some had done, by 
force of arms, to oppose nothing 
but prayer and reasonable re- 
monstrances to the rage of their 
enemies. 

" From this period to the ref- 
ormation they were severely 
persecuted, but still preserved 
their unity. A connexion was 
also formed between them and 
the Waldenses, who had for 
many centuries borne witness 
to the truth. They had several 
conferences with Luther, Cal- 
vin, and other reformers, and 
some attempts were made for 
an union. They approved of 
the Augsburg confession j but 
not agreeing in discipline, they 
still continued a distinct body. 

<• After various persecutions, 
distresses, and discouragements 
during the seventeenth century, 
they became in a manner ex- 
tinct : but about the year 1720, 
a remarkable awakening took 
place among the posterity of 
the Brethren in Bohemia ; and 
as no free toleration could be 
obtained for them in that coun- 
try, they agreed to emigrate. 
Christian David, who had been 
very useful amongst them, ap- 
plied on their behalf to Nicholas 
Lewis, Count Zinzendorf, who 
granted them permission to set- 
tle on his estates in Upper Lu- 
satia. Thither, in 1722, a com- 
pany of them repaired, and 
formed the settlement of Hern- 
hutt. Within the first four Qr 



UM 



302 



UNI 



five years they had well nigh 
been broken up by religious 
dissensions, occasioned (it is 
said) by parties from among 
the Lutherans and the Reform- 
ed coming to settle with them. 
At length, by the exertions of 
Count Zinzendorf, the Unity 
was renewed, and in 1727 rules 
agreed to, by which divisions 
might in future be avoided. 
The Count, who from the first 
was friendly, now became unit- 
ed to them, and, in 1735, was 
chosen to be their bishop ; 
having been the preceding year 
received into clerical orders by 
the Theological Faculty of Nu- 
bingcn. 

With respect to their doc- 
trinal sentiments, they, as be- 
fore observed, avow the Augs- 
burg confession ; and, in 1784, 
they published an Exposition 
of Christian doctrine in har- 
mony with it. In a summary 
of the doctrine of Jesus Christ, 
published in 1797 for the in- 
struction of their youth, they 
say nothing on the trinity, but 
merely quote passages of scrip- 
ture which relate to it. Under 
the article of the Holy Spirit, 
however, they say, " He is wvy 
God with the Father and the 
Son." They appear to avoid 
the doctrine of unconditional 
election, and believe that "Je- 
sus Christ died for all men, and 
hath purchased salvation for 
all."* Yet they say, "We do 
not become Imly by Qur own 
power; but it is a work of the 
Father, Bon, and Holy Spirit." 



There is no doctrine on which 
they seem to dwell with such 
delight, as that of the cross, or 
the love of Christ in laying 
down his life for sinners. This, 
they say, has been the preach- 
ing which the Lord hath most- 
ly blessed to the conversion of 
the heathen. 

The church of the United 
Brethren is episcopal; and the 
order of succession in their bish- 
ops is traced with great exact- 
ness in their history : yet they 
allow to them no elevation of 
rank, or pre-eminent authority ; 
their church having from its 
first establishment been govern- 
ed by synods, consisting of 
deputies from all the congre- 
gations, and by other subordi- 
nate bodies, which they call 
conferences. The synods, which 
are generally held once in seven 
years, are called together by 
the elders, who were in the for- 
mer synod appointed to super- 
intend the whole Unity. In the 
first sitting, a president is cho- 
sen, and these elders lay down 
their office, but they do not 
withdraw from the assembly ; 
for they, together with the bish- 
ops, lay elders, and those minis- 
ters who have the general care 
or inspection of several congre- 
gations in one province f have 
scats allowed in the synod. Tha 
other members are one or more 
deputies sent by each congre- 
gation and such ministers or 
missionaries as are particular- 
ly called to attend. Women, 
approved by the congregations, 



CranWi H the Qrcthrep, section 82* 



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303 



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are also admitted as hearers, 
and are called upon to give 
their advice in what relates to 
the ministerial labour among 
their own sex ; but they have 
no vote in the synod. 

In questions of importance, 
or of which the consequences 
cannot be foreseen, neither the 
majority of votes, nor the unan- 
imous consent of all present 
can decide ; but recourse is had 
to the lot. For this practice 
the brethren allege the exam- 
ples of the ancient Jews, and 
of the apostles, (Acts i. 26.) the 
insufficiency of the human un- 
derstanding, amidst the best 
and purest intentions, to decide 
for itself in what concerns the 
administration of Christ's king- 
dom ; and their own confident 
reliance on the promise of the 
Lord Jesus, that he will approve 
himself the head and ruler of 
his church. The lot is never 
made use of, but after mature 
deliberation and fervent pray- 
er ; nor is any thing submitted 
to its decision which does not, 
after being thoroughly weigh- 
ed, appear to the assembly eli- 
gible in itself. 

In every synod, the inward 
and outward state of the Unity, 
and the concerns of the con- 
gregations and missions, are 
taken into consideration. If 
errors in doctrine, or deviations 
in practice have crept in, the 
synod endeavours to remove 
them, and by salutary regula- 
tions to prevent them for the 
future. It considers how many 
a bishops are to be consecrated 



to fill up the vacancies occa^ 
sioned by death ; and eyery 
member of the synod gives a 
vote for such of the clergy as 
he thinks best qualified. Those 
who have the majority of votes 
are taken into the lot, and they 
who are approved are conse- 
crated accordingly. 

Towards the close of every 
synod a kind of executive board 
is chosen and called, M The 
Elders' Conference of the Uni- 
ty/ 5 divided into committees or 
departments — (1.) The mis- 
sions' department, which super- 
intends all the concerns of the 
missions into heathen countries. 
— (2.) The helpers 9 department, 
which watches over the purity 
of doctrine, and the moral con- 
duct of the different congrega- 
tions. — (3.) The servants 9 de- 
partment, to which the econom- 
ical concerns of the Unity 
are committed. — (4.) The over- 
seers 9 department, of which the 
business is to see that the con- 
stitution and discipline of the 
Brethren be every where main- 
tained. No resolution, howev- 
er, of any of these departments, 
has the smallest force, till it be 
laid before the assembly of the 
Elders 9 Conference, and have 
the approbation of that body. 

Besides this general Confer- 
ence of Elders, there is a Con- 
ference of Elders belonging to 
each congregation, which di- 
rects its affairs, and to which 
the bishops and all other min- 
isters, as well as the lay mem- 
bers of the congregation, are 
subject. This body, which is cal- 



UNI 



304 



tJNI 



l^d, "The Elders' Conference 
of the Congregation," consists, 
— (1.) Of the minister 9 as pres- 
ident, to whom the ordinary 
care of the congregation is 
committed — (2.) The warden, 
whose office it is to superintend 
all outward concerns of the 
congregation. — (3.) A married 
pair, who care particularly for 
the spiritual welfare of the 
married people. — (4) A single 
clergyman, to whose care the 
young men are more particu- 
larly committed. — And, (5.) 
Those women who assist in car- 
ing for the spiritual and tempo- 
ral welfare of their own sex, 
and who in this conference have 
equal votes. 

Episcopal consecration does 
not, in the opinion of the Breth- 
ren, confer any power to pre- 
side over one or more congre- 
gations ; and a bishop can dis- 
charge no office but by the ap- 
pointment of a synod, or of the 
Elders' Conference of theUnity. 
Presbyters amongst them can 
perform every function of the 
bishop, except ordination. Dea- 
cons are assistants to the pres- 
byters, much in the same, way 
as in the church of England ; 
and deaconesses are retained 
for the purpose of privately ad- 
monishing their own sex, and 
visiting them in their sickness : 
but though they are solemnly 
blessed to this office, they are 
not permitted to teach in pub* 
He, and far less to administer 
the ordinances. They have 
likewise stmores civiles, or lay 
elders, in contradistinction to 



spiritual elders, or bishops, who 
are appointed to watch over 
the constitution and discipline 
of the United Brethren ; over 
the observance of the laws of 
the country in which congrega- 
tions or missions are establish- 
ed, and over the privileges 
granted to the Brethren by the 
governments under which they 
live. 

They have economies, or 
char-houses, where they live 
together in communities : thei 
single men and single women, 
widows and widowers apart, 
each under the superintendance 
of elderly persons of their own 
class. In these houses every 
person who is able, and has 
not an independent support, 
labours in his or her own occu- 
pation, and contributes a stipu- 
lated sum for their mainte- 
nance. Their children are 
educated with peculiar care. 
In marriage they may only 
form a connexion with those of 
their own communion : the 
brother, who marries out of the 
congregation, is immediately 
dismissed from church-fellow- 
ship. Sometimes, however, a 
sister is by express license from 
the Elders' Conference permit- 
ted to marry a person of ap- 
proved piety in another com- 
munion, yet still to join in their 
church ordinances as before. 
As all intercourse between tho 
different sexes is carefully a- 
voided, very few opportunities 
of forming particular attach- 
ments are found ; and they 
usually refer their choice to the 



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ing to communicate, converses 
with one of tiie elders on tne 
state of his soul. The celebra- 
tion of the communion is pre- 
ceded by a love-feast ; and on 
Maunday Thursday by a sol- 
emn washing of each other's 
feet, after which the kiss of 
charity is bestowed. All the 
above-named ceremonies they 
consider as obligatory, and au- 
thorized in all ages of the 
church ,* quoting John xiii. 14. 
Romans xvi. 16. On Easter- 
Sunday they attend the chapel, 
or in some places the burial 
ground, where they read a pe- 
culiar liturgy, and call over 
the names of all their members, 
who died in the preceding year. 
And every morning in Easter- 
week they meet at seven o'clock 
to read the harmonies of the 
Gospel on the crucifixion, &c. 
But the most distinguishing 
feature of this denomination is 
their earnest and unremitted 
labour in attempting to con- 
vert the heathen. They seem 
to have considered themselves 
within this last century as a 
church of missionaries. And 
though other denominations 
have of late emulated their 
zeal, yet they are said to be 
far behind them. 1 * By the 
most indefatigable labour and 
sufferings they have sent the 
gospel to the four quarters of 
the earth.f For an account of 

* Crantz's History of the United Brethren. Summary of the Doctrine of. 
Jesus Christ. Haweis' Church Hist. vol. iii. 

f The Moravians have missionaries established in the Danish West-India 
islands. Two Moravian missionaries formed the project ; and were exceed- 
ingly desirous of selling themselves as slaves, that they might have an oppor- 
tunity of preaching Christ to the negro slaves at St. Thomas'. Thev suppos* 
39 



church rather than decide for 
themselves. And as the lot 
must be cast to sanction their 
union, each receives his partner 
as a divine appointment. They 
do not consider a literary 
course of education as at all 
necessary to the ministry, pro- 
vided there be a thorough 
knowledge of the word of God, 
a solid christian experience, 
and a well regulated zeal to 
serve God and their neigh- 
bours. They consider the 
church of Christ as not confin- 
ed to any particular denomina- 
tion : and themselves, though 
united in one body or vLible 
church, as spiritually joined in 
the bond of christian love to all 
who are taught of God, and be- 
long to the universal church of 
Christ, however much they 
may differ in forms, which they 
deem not essentials. 

Their public worship is very 
simple ; their singing, accom- 
panied by an organ, played 
very soft and solemn. On a 
Sunday morning they read a 
liturgy of their own church, af- 
ter which a sermon is preached, 
and an exhortation given to the 
children. In the afternoon 
they have private meetings, 
and public worship in the even- 
ing. Previous to the sacra- 
ment, which is administered 
once a month, and on Maunday 
Thursday, every person intend- 



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their numerous missionary set- 
tlements, see Appendix. 

UN1VERSALISTS. The 
sentiment which has procured 
its professors this appellation 
was embraced by Origen in 
the third century, and in more 
modern times by Chevalier 
Ramsay, Mr. Jer. White, Dr. 
Cheyne, Dr. Hartley, Dr. New- 
ton, bishop of Bristol, and ma- 
ny others. The plan of Uni- 
versal salvation, as exhibited 
by a late, learned divine (Dr. 
Chauncy of Boston, in Ameri- 
ca,) who, in his work entitled, 
" The Salvation of all men," 
has made several additions to 
the sentiments of the above- 
mentioned authors, is as fol- 
lows : 

That the scheme of revela- 
tion has the happiness of all 
mankind lying at bottom, as 
its great and ultimate end ; 
that it gradually tends to this 
end, and will not fail of its ac- 
complishment when fully com- 
pleted. Some in consequence 
of its operation, as conducted 
by the Son of God, will he dis- 
posed and enabled in this pres- 
ent state to make such improve- 
ments in virtue, the only ra- 
tional preparative for happi- 
ness, as that they shall enter 



upon the enjoyment of it in the 
next state. Others who have 
proved incurable under the 
means, which have been used 
with them in this state, instead 
of being happy in the next, will 
be awfully miserable ; not to 
continue so finally, but that 
they may be convinced of their 
folly, and recovered to a virtu- 
ous frame of mind : and this 
will be the effect of the future 
torments upon many, the con- 
sequence whereof will be their 
salvation, after being thus fit- 
ted for it. And there may be 
yet other states, before the 
scheme of God may be perfect- 
ed, and mankind universally 
cured of their moral disor- 
ders ; and in this w T ay qualified 
for, and finally instated in, 
eternal happiness. But how- 
ever many states some indi- 
viduals of the human species 
may pass through, and of how- 
ever long continuance they 
may be, the whole is intended 
to subserve the grand design 
of universal happiness, and will 
finally terminate in it ; inso- 
much, that the Son of God, and 
Saviour of men, will not deliv- 
er up his trust into the hands 
of the Father, who committed 
it to him, till he has discharg- 



er, by b< coming 1 himself n slave, might bo always among* them, 
and hence able to instruct them, without interruption. Upon being 1 informed, 
that no white persons could, according 1 to law, he admitted as slaves, they 
i work at a trade for i livelihood, and arrived :it St. Thomas', T)c- 
t 13, 1732. Their sufferings, in the beginning of the mission, were ex- 
ceedingly great, but ut length their Labours were crowned with abundant suc- 
i To use the words of one of the Moravian society — " Many thousands 

are now gathered around the tlironc of the Lamb from that quarter, and about 
ten thousand, in our connexion, are at present belonging to Ins church here on 
5< •• i: ptist \: nual I 



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ed his obligations in virtue of 
it ; having finally fixed all men 
in heaven, when God will be 
all in all. 1 Cor. xv. 28. 

A few of the arguments made 
use of, in defence of this sys- 
tem, are as follow :* 

I. Christ died not for a select 
number of men only, but for 
mankind universally, and with- 
out exception or limitation. 

For the sacred writers are 
singularly emphatical in ex- 
pressing this truth. They 
speak not only of Christ's 
" dying for us" "for our sins" 
"for sinners" "for the ungod- 
ly " "for the unjust ;" but af- 
firm, in yet more extensive 
terms, that " he died for the 
world" for " the whole world" 
See 1 Thess. v. 10. 1 Cor. xv. 
3. Rom. v. 6, 8. 1 Pet. iii. 
18. John i. 29 ; iii. 16, 17. 
1 John ii. 2. Heb. ii. 9 ; and 
a variety of other passages. 

If Christ died for all, it is 
far more reasonable to believe, 
that the whole human kind, in 
consequence of his death, will 
finally be saved, than that the 
greatest part of them should 
perish. More honour is here- 
by reflected on God; greater 
virtue is attributed to the blood 
of Christ shed on the cross ; 
and instead of dying in vain, 
as to any real good, which 
will finally be the event, with 
respect to the greatest part of 
mankind, he will be made to 



die to the best and noblest pur- 
pose, even the eternal happi- 
ness of a whole world of intel- 
ligent and moral beings. 

II. It is the purpose of God, 
according to his good pleasure, 
that mankind universally, in 
consequence of the death of his 
Son Jesus Christ, shall certain- 
ly and finally be saved. 

The texts, which ascertain 
this, are those, which follow : 
First, Rom. v. 12, to the end. 
There Adam is considered as 
the source of damage to man- 
kind universally ; and Christ, 
on, the other hand, as a like 
source of advantage to the 
same mankind; but with this 
observable difference, that the 
advantage on the side of Christ 
exceeds, overflows, abounds, 
beyond the damage on the side 
of Adam ; and this to all man- 
kind. The 15th, 16th, and 
17th verses, are absolutely un- 
intelligible upon any other in- 
terpretation. 

Another text, to the purpose 
of our present argument, we 
meet with in Rom. viii. from 
the 19th to the 24th verse. 
On the one hand, it is affirmed 
of the creature, that is, of man- 
kind in general, that they are 
subjected to vanity, that is, the 
imperfections and infelicities of 
a vain, mortal life, here on 
earth. On the other hand, it 
is positively affirmed of the 
creature, or mankind in gcner- 



* The learned author of the performance, whence these arguments are ex- 
tracted, has illustrated the passages of scripture quoted, by critical notes on 
the original language, and by showing their analogy to other passages in the 
inspired writings. Those, who would form a j ust idea of the arguments, must 
consult the work itself. 



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SOS 



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al, that they were not subjected 
to this vanity, finally and for- 
ever, but in consequence of 
hope; not only that tliey should 
be delivered from this unhappy 
subjection, but instated in im- 
mortal glory. 

Another text to this purpose 
occurs in Col. u 19, 20. For it 
pleased the Father, that in him 
should all fulness dwell; "and 
(having made peace through the 
blood of his cross J by him to rec- 
oncile all things unto himself; Sfc. 
And in this Epistle, chapter ii. 
verse 9, the apostle (speak- 
ing of Christ) says, In Mm 
dwelleth all the fulness of the 
Godhead bodily ; that is, he is 
the glorious person, in whom 
God has really lodged, and 
through whom he will actually 
communicate all the fulness, 
wherewith he intends this laps- 
ed world shall be filled in or- 
der to its restoration. And 
Christ, having this fulness 
lodged in him, ascended up far 
above all heavens, that he might 
fill all things. Eph. iv. 10. 
And as the filling all things in 
this lapsed world, that they 
might be restored, was the fi- 
nal cause of the ascension of 
Christ up to heaven, all things 
must accordingly he filled in 
fart by him, sooner or later; 
the apostle therefore observes 
in the following verses, not on- 
ly that he has imparted gifts 
in prosecution of the end of his 
exaltation, but that in order to 
the full accomplishment of it, 
he would go on to impart them, 
until we all come to the unity of 



the faith, unto a perfect man, un- 
to the measure of the stature of 
the fulness of Christ. And it 
is declared in Ephes. i. 9, 10, 
that all things in heaven and 
earth shall be reduced from the 
state they were in, by means of 
the lapse, into a well subjected 
and subordinate whole by 
Christ. Another proof of the 
present proposition we find in 
1 Tim. ii, 4. If God is able in 
consistency with men's make, 
as moral and intelligent agents, 
to effect their salvation, his de- 
siring that they should be sav- 
ed, and his eventually saving 
them, are convertible terms. 

III. As a mean in order to 
men's being made meet for sal- 
vation, God will sooner or lat- 
er, in this state or another, re- 
duce them all under a willing 
and obedient subjection to his 
moral government. 

The texts which confirm this 
proposition are numerous. The 
apostle says in 1 John iii. 8. 
For this purpose the Son of God 
was manifested, that he might 
destroy the works of the devil. 
Parallel to this passage, see 
John i. 29, Matt. i. 21, and 
Psa. viii. 5, G, as explained and 
argued from Heb. ii. 6, 9. 
These words are applicable to 
Christ, in their strict and full 
sense. And if all things, with- 
out any limitation or exception, 
shall be brought under subjec- 
tion to Christ, then the time 
must come, sooner or later, in 
this state or some other, when 
there shall be no rebels among 
the sons of Adam, no enemies 



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against the moral government 
of God : for there is no way 
of reducing rebels, so as to des- 
troy their character as such, 
but by making them willing 
and obedient subjects. That 
this scripture is thus to be un- 
derstood is evident by a paral- 
lel passage in Phil. ii. 9 — 11. 
The next portion of scripture, 
in proof of the present propo- 
sition, we meet with in 1 Cor. 
chap. xv. from the 24th to the 
end of the 28th verse. Though 
the apostle, in this paragraph, 
turns our view to the end of 
the mediatory scheme, it is af- 
firmed, that universal subjec- 
tion to Christ shall first be ef- 
fected, in a variety of as strong 
and ^extensive terms, as could 
well have been used : as, by 
"putting down all rule, cmd all 
authority and power; 99 by "put- 
ting all enemies under his feet 99 
&c. It is worthy of special 
notice, that, before Christ's de- 
livery of the mediatorial king- 
dom to the Father, the last ene- 
my must be destroyed, which is 
death — the second death*— which 
those, who die wicked men, 
must suffer, before they can be 
reduced under willing subjec- 
tion to Jesus Christ. For the 
first death cannot be called the 
last enemy with propriety and 
truth, because the second death 
is posterior to it, and has no 
existence till that has been so 
far destroyed, as to allow of a 
restoration to life. 

The two periods, when the 
mediatory kingdom is in the 



hands of Jesus Christ, and 
when God, as king, will be im- 
mediately all in all, are certain- 
ly quite distinct from each oth- 
fcr : and the reign of Christ, in 
his mediatorial kingdom, may 
be divided into two general pe- 
riods. The one takes in this 
present state of existence, in 
which Christ reigns at the head 
of God's kingdom of grace. 
During this period a number 
of the sons of Adam will be fit- 
ted for a glorious immortality 
in the next state. The other 
period of Christ's reign is that 
which intervenes between the 
general resurrection and judg- 
ment, and the time when God 
shall be all in all. This state 
may contain a duration of so 
long continuance, as to answer 
to the scripture phrase, ei$ rov$ 
utavas rm u^imm^ forever and ere* 
er 9 or as it might more properly 
be rendered for ages of ages. 
During the whole of this state 
the righteous shall be happy, 
and the wicked, who are most 
obdurate, miserable, till they 
are reduced, as willing and obe- 
dient servants to Christ, which 
when accomplished, the grand 
period shall commence, when 
God shall be himself immedi- 
ately all in all.* 

IV. The scripture language 
concerning the reduced or re- 
stored in consequence of the 
mediatory interposition of Je- 
sus Christ is such as leads us to 
conclude, that it is comprehen- 
sive of mankind universally. 
See Rev. v. IS. And every crea- 



Chauncy's Salvation of ail men, p. 12, 13, 20, 22, 81, U7, 123, &c, 



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tnre which is in heaven, and on 
the earth, and under the earth, and 
such as are in the sea, and all 
that are in them , heard I, saying, 
Messing, and honour, and glory, 
and power, be unto him that sit- 
teth upon the throne, and unto 
the lamb forever and ever. 

This title also distinguishes 
those who embrace the senti- 
ments of Mr. Relly, a modern 
preacher of universal salvation 
in England, and Mr. Murray in 
this country. See Rellyans. 

This denomination build their 
scheme upon the following 
foundation ; viz. — That Christ, 
as Mediator, was so united to 
mankind, that his actions were 
theirs, his obedience and suffer- 
ings theirs ; and consequently 
he has as fully restored the 
whole human race to the divine 
favour, as if all had obeyed and 
suffered in their own persons. 
The divine law now has no de- 
mands upon them, nor con- 
demning power over them. 
Their salvation solely depends 
upon their union with Christ, 
which God constituted and es- 
tablished before the world be- 
gan ; and by virtue of this 
union they will all be admitted 
to heaven at the last day. 

They allege that the union of 
Christ and his church is a neces- 
sary consideration for the right 
explanation of the followingpas- 
sages of scripture j Eph. v. 30* 
1 Cor. \ii. 26 ; xii. 12. See al- 
so Col, i. JS. Ephes. i. 
Col. ii. 10. Rom, xii. 5, Heb. 
ii. Hi John xvii. S£, 23, 

The scriptures allirn), that by 



the offence of one, judgment 
came upon all men unto con- 
demnation. Rom. v. 8 ; iii. 25. 
It is evident hence, that in 
Adam's offence all have offend- 
ed ; which supposes such a 
union between Adam and his 
offspring, that his sin was their 
sin, and his ruin their ruin : and 
if this be granted, why should 
it be thought a thing incredible, 
that the like union, subsisting 
between Jesus and his seed, 
should render his condition 
theirs? especially as the apostle 
has stated the matter thus : 
Rom. v. 19. 

To prove that the atonement 
was satisfactory for the whole 
human race, they allege that it 
is said, " Christ died for all ;" 
that " he is the propitiation for 
our sins, and not for ours*)nly, 
but for the sins of the whole 
world. 55 

This denomination admit of 
no punishment for sin but what 
Christ suffered ; but speak of a 
punishment, which is conse- 
quent upon sin, as darkness, 
distress, and misery, which they 
assert are ever attendant upon 
transgression. But, as to know 
the true God ami Jesus Christ is 
life eternal, and as all shall 
know him from the least to the 
greatest, that knowledge, or be- 
lief, will consequently dispel or 
save from all the darkness, dis- 
tress and tear, which is attend- 
ant upon guilt and unbelief; 
and being perfectly holy, we 
shall consequently be perfect- 
ly and eternally happy. 



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As the reader has been pre- 
sented with a brief account of 
the arguments in favour of uni- 
versal salvation, it is proper to 
give a sketch of the evidence 
brought on the opposite side of 
the question. 

A few of the arguments al- 
leged to support the eternity of 
future punishment are as follow : 

The sacred scriptures ex- 
pressly declare that the pun- 
ishment of the finally impeni- 
tent shall be eternal. Matt. 
xxv. 46. And these shall go 
away into everlasting punish- 
ment, &c. See also Mark ix.45, 
46. Matt, xviii. 8, 9. 2 Thes. i. 

9. 2 Pet. ii. 17. Jude 13. Rev. 
xiv. 11 ; xix. 3; xx. 10. 

The texts concerning the sin 
against the Holy Spirit in 
particular, are a clear proof of 
endless punishment. It shall 
not be forgiven him, neither in 
this world, nor in the world to 
come. Matt. xii. 31, 32. See 
also Mark iii. 28, 29. Luke xii. 

10. So long as the gospel re- 
jects every idea of the salvation 
of men without forgiveness, so 
long will those texts confute 
the salvation of all men. The 
apostle says, 1 John v. 16, "If 
any man see his brother sin a 
sin which is not unto death, he 
shall ask, and he shall give him 
life for them that sin not unto 
death. There is a sin unto 
death : I do not say that he 
shall pray for it." It is evident 
the reason, why we are not to 
pray for those who sin unto 
death, is, because their salva- 
tion is impossible. It is said 



in Heb. vi. 4 — 6, " It is impos- 
sible for those who were once 
enlightened, and have tasted of 
the heavenly gift, &c. if they 
should fall away, to renew them 
again to repentance :" now 
since it is impossible to renew 
them to repentance, it is im- 
possible that they can be saved. 
Of like import is chap. x. 26, 
27. — The woe denounced by 
Christ on Judas also seems to 
afford a demonstrative proof of 
endless punishment : M Woe to 
that man by whom the Son of 
Man is betrayed ; good were it 
for that man if he had never 
been born." Matt. xxvi. 24. 
Mark xiv. 21. But if Judas 
were finally to enjoy endless 
happiness, he would be an in- 
finite gainer by his existence, 
let the duration of his previous 
misery be what it might. It 
was, therefore, on the supposi- 
tion of his final salvation, not 
only good, but infinitely good, 
that he had been born ; which 
is a direct contradiction to the 
declaration of our Saviour. 

All the texts which declare 
that those who die impenitent 
shall perish, be cast away, 
rejected, &c. disprove univer- 
sal salvation : as, 1 Cor. i. 18. 
2 Pet. ii. 12, &c. With what 
truth or propriety can those be 
said to perish, be cast away, be 
rejected, destroyed, and lost % 
who shall finally be saved ? So 
it is said in Heb. vi. 8, " That 
which beareth thorns and briers 
is rejected, and is nigh unto 
cursing, whose end is to be 
burned." How is it the end of 



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any man to be burned, if all 
shall finally be saved? The 
figurative descriptions of the 
punishment of the wicked are 
strong, emphatical, and deci- 
sive of it, as hopeless of resti- 
tution, and of endless duration. 
It is set forth by devouring f re, 
by eternal fire, everlasting burn- 
ings; and, if possible, more 
strongly, by the worm that dieth 
not, and the fire that is not quench- 
ed : this must mean a punish- 
ment which hath not, and never 
shall have, an end. The scrip- 
ture represents, that at the end 
of the world all things are 
brought to an end. 1 Pet. iv. 
7. Then shall there be a fixed, 
unalterable state; and after 
that there can be no passing 
from hell to heaven. Rev. xxii. 
11, 12. The last words de- 
termine this text to refer to the 
general judgment; for a period 
of ages of ages after the general 
judgment cannot be said to 
"come quickly, and to be at 
hand. The representation in 
the parables of our Lord is, 
that after the general judgment 
the tares and chaff shall, no 
more be mixed with the wheat, 
nor the good with the bad. 
Besides, the judgment is said 
to he eternal (*.ta*iM r X: ) doubt- 
less with respect to its endless 
and unchangeable consequen- 
Bm1 if the judgment be 
rnal with respect to its con- 
the punishment of 



the damned will be without 
end. The peculiar epithets and 
emphasis put upon the future 
judgment indicate it final. It 
is frequently styled the last 
day ; and the great works ap- 
propriated to it are, the univer- 
sal resurrection, and the gen- 
eral judgment and decision 
of the states of the whole moral 
world. — That the wicked will 
never be released from punish- 
ment, and pass from hell into 
the abodes of the blessed, is ex- 
pressly asserted by our Saviour, 
Luke xvi. 26. All the texts 
which speak of the divine ven- 
geance, fury, wrath, indigna- 
tion, fiery indignation, &c. hold 
forth some other punishment 
than that which is merely dis- 
ciplinary. See Deut. xxxii. 41. 
Rom. iii. 5, 6 ; ix. 22. 2 Thes. 
i. 8, &c. Besides the arguments 
drawn directly from texts of 
scripture, there is one from the 
general nature of the gospel. 
Those who die impenitent de- 
serve an endless punishment : 
for if endless punishment be 
not the penalty threatened in 
the law, no account can be 
given of the penalty of the law. 
It cannot be the temporary pun- 
ishment actually suffered by 
the damned, because then they 
would be finally saved without 
forgiveness. It cannot be a 
temporary punishment of less 
duration than that which is 
red by the damned, bc- 



• Dr. Edwards, rules for ihc eternity of future punish- 

ment, . erofda uiuv and cu&vios strictly imply an endless 

duration. On the other band, Dr. Chauncy bus taken great pains to show 
that they mean a limited dural 



ment 



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cause on that supposition they 
are punished more than they 
deserve. It cannot be a tem- 
porary punishment of longer 
duration than that which the 
scriptures abundantly declare 
the damned shall suffer, be- 
cause no such punishment is 
threatened in the law or in any 
part of scripture : it must there- 
fore be an endless punishment. 
The doctrine of the perpetuity 
of future punishment is also 
confirmed by the constitution 
of nature, which connects sin 
and misery together, and will 
finally make the wicked neces- 
sarily miserable as long as they 
have existence; unless this 
constitution be annihilated, or 
superseded by the grace of 
God, which he assures us never 
shall be the case.^ 

A new scheme of universal sal- 
vation has been advanced by 
the late Dr. Joseph Hunting- 
ton, of America, in a posthu- 
mous work, entitled, " Calvin- 
ism Improved ; or, The Gospel 
Illustrated as a System of Real 
Grace, issuing in the Salvation 
of all Men." The author of 
this performance supposes the 
atonement to be « a direct, 
true, and proper setting all our 
guilt to the account of Christ, 
as our federal head and spon- 
sor ; and alike placing his obe- 
dience to death to our account.' 5 
« The Son of Man/ 5 says he, 
"is God's only object, as an elect 
head, in regard to our eternal 
salvation ; and all human na- 



* Edwards against Chauncy, p. 53 — 293* 
Bient, p. 59—67. 

40 



ture is one entire, elect object, 
in union with Christ, as a body 
with a head/ 5 Agreeably ta 
this idea, Dr. Huntington main- 
tains, that our sins are trans- 
ferred to Christ, and his right- 
eousness to us ; that he was a 
true and proper substitute for 
all mankind, and has procured 
unconditional, eternal salvation, 
for everij individual; that the 
gospel is all mere news, good 
news, and hath no threatenings 
in it : that law and gospel are 
diametrically opposite ; that 
these two dispensations of God 
oppose each other from begin- 
ning to end. " The moral law," 
says he " every where speaks 
to man in his own personal char- 
acter, the gospel in that of the 
Messiah. The law informs us 
what man in justice deserves, 
the gospel what the Son of God 
deserves." Accordingly Dr. 
Huntington understands all the 
threatenings in the word of God 
as the pure voice of law and 
justice. Thus he explains Matt. 
xxv. 46 : «* Mankind in this 
passage are considered in two 
characters : in their own per- 
sonally ; and then the voice of 
the righteous law is, These 
shall go away into everlasting 
punishment ; but [in Christ] the 
righteous [by union of faith] 
shall enter into life eternal. 
The wicked character shall re- 
main an everlasting object of 
shame, contempt, and condem- 
nation, in the view of God and 
holy intelligences ; the right- 
Johnson on everlasting punish* 



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U4 



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eous character an eternal ob- 
ject of approbation, worthy of 
life eternal/ 5 

This author declares, that 
the whole tenor of divine reve- 
lation ascertains the salvation 
of all men. In support of this 
assertion he adduces various 
texts of scripture. But, as 
many of his general arguments 
in favour of universal salvation 
have been exhibited in the 
foregoing articles, our curious 
leaders are referred to his post- 
humous publication;^ especial- 
ly as this does not appear to 
be so properly a new scheme, as 
a revival of Mr. Relly's, above- 
recited. 

An answer to Dr. Hunting- 
ton's " Calvinism Improved' 5 
lias been published by the late 
Dr. Nathan Strong, minister 
of Hartford in Connecticut. In 
this work he endeavours to re- 
concile the doctrine of eternal 
misery with the infinite benevo- 
lence of God. Dr. Strong ob- 
serves, that those who believe 
in eternal punishment, found 
their belief in consistence wish 
the infinite benevolence of the 
Godhead. They suppose that 
benevolence is Hie sum of all 
his glorious perfections J that 
i* is a comprehensive name for 
his whole moral rectitude ; that 
there is no separation to be 
made between punitive justice 
and benevolence ; that it is be- 
nevolence which moves him to 
punish both now and eternally ; 
and that if he did nol punish, he 
would not he an infinitely be- 



nevolent God. He states be- 
nevolence to be — (1.) A love 
of the greatest quantity of hap- 
piness. — (2.) That it is con- 
sistent with the existence of 
misery. — (3.) That it has re- 
gard to the greatest quantity of 
happiness in society, and not to 
the happiness of every individ- 
ual. " Benevolence thus de- 
fined (says he) is that goodness, 
or holiness, which directs the 
supreme God in creating, gov- 
erning, and rewarding. The 
good of the whole, or the great- 
est happiness of intellectual 
being, is the object of benevo- 
lence. We may be assured 
that the infinitely benevolent, 
all-wise, and all-powerful God, 
will eternally execute such a 
government as will produce the 
greatest possible portion of hap- 
piness in the universe. 

In order to confute Dr. Hun- 
tington's plan of universal sal- 
vation, Dr. Strong attempts to 
prove — (1.) That the gospel 
contains threatening^ of death, 
and impenitent sinners will he 
as much condemned by the 
gospel, as by the law. — (2.) 
That there is in no sense a 
contradiction, or opposition, 
between the law and the gos- 
pel. « Neither the law nor the 
gospel gives life or death inde- 
pendent of the moral temper 
and actions of men. The law 
itself hath the same power to 
give life as to give death. To 
the obedient and holy the law 
gives iife. It gave life to Adam 
so long as he was a holy being. 



Huntington's Calvinism improved, p. 26—165. 



UNI 



315 



UNI 



through Christ, the necessity 
doth not cease. The meritori- 
ous cause on which he forgives* 
is the atoning sufferings of his 
Soil, The movingeause in his 
own mind to provide the gospel- 
atonement, and pardon the sin- 
ner on account of it, was his 
own goodness and the general 
good. 

" The atoning sufferings of 
Christ were necessary on the 
gospel scheme, for the same 
reason as the eternal misery of 
the sinner was under the law ; 
viz. to make a display of God's 
moral character — of his right- 
eousness, as King of the uni- 
verse — of his sense of the tur- 
pitude of the sinner's princi- 
ples and practice ; and also the 
nature of hencvolence in its 
high and infinite source. God- 
head himself. 5, # 

The name of Hypothetical 
Universalists was given to 
those of the reformed church in 
France, who in the seventeenth 
century attempted to reconcile 
the doctrine of predestination, 
as it had heen taught at Gene- 
va, and confirmed at Dort, 
with the sentiments of those 4 
who represent the Deity as of- 
fering the display of his good- 
ness and mercy to all mankind. 
Moses Amyrault, a man of dis- 
tinguished ability and learning, 
who was professor of divinity 
in the university of Saumur, 
in 1634 exerted all his energy, 
in this attempt of reconciling 

* Strong's Benevolence and Misery, p 152—266. Winchester's Universal 
Salvation. See also fuller's Letters to Vidkr.— V idler's Letters to Fuller— 
and a Review of botti in Scrutator's Letters, by Vlv. Jrrram. 



and it now gives life to all those 
beings who have not sinned. 
To the disobedient, by means 
of their sin, it gives death ; and 
as all men have become diso- 
bedient, they are under a sen- 
tence of condemnation. (See 
Rom. vii.) So it is with the 
gospel : there are conditions on 
which life is offered, " repent- 
ance towards God, and faith in 
our Lord Jesus Christ; and if 
there be not a compliance with 
these conditions, the gospel be- 
comes a dispensation of death 
to sinners, as much as the law 
is ; yea, of a much more awful 
death than the lav/ threatened." 

Dr. Strong next attempts to 
prove that Dr. Huntington's 
notions of the atonement of 
Christ are unscriptural and ab- 
surd. His own ideas on that 
subject arc as follow : 

" Christ, according to the 
will of the Father, and with his 
own choice, hath by obedience 
and sufferings made a display 
of certain moral truths, which 
the eternal misery of those, who 
were forgiven, was necessary 
for displaying; so that their 
misery is not now necessary for 
the good government of the 
universe. The reason that their 
eternal suffering was fit under 
the law was to make this dis- 
play, the necessity of which 
hath now ceased, if God will be 
pleased to sanctify and forgive 
through Christ; but if he bo 
not pleased to sanctify them 



WAH 



316 



WAH 



the Calvinists and Arminians ; 
and his writings made no small 
change in the doctrines Com- 
monly received among the re- 
formed in France. 

The doctrine of Amyrault 
may he summed up in the fol- 
lowing propositions : "That 
God desires the happiness of all 
men, and that no mortal is ex- 
cluded, by any divine decree, 
from the benefits that are pro- 
cured by the death, suffering, 
and gospel of Christ : That, 
however, no one can be made a 
partaker of the blessings of the 
gospel, nor of the eternal sal- 
vation, unless he believe in Je- 
sus Christ : That God refuses 
to none the power of believing, 
though he does not grant to all 



his assistance that they may 
improve this power to the at- 
tainment of everlasting salva- 
tion : — And, that many perish, 
through their own fault, and 
not from any want of goodness 
in God." See Cameronians. 

The mitigated view of the 
doctrine of predestination was 
advocated by many of the re- 
formed church in France. 
Those who embraced this doc- 
trine were called Universalists, 
because they represented God 
as willing to show mercy to 
all mankind ; and Hypothetical 
Universalists, because the con- 
dition of faith in Christ was 
necessary to render them the 
objects of this mercy,* 



w 



WAHABEES or Wait \ - 
bites, a sect of religionists 
founded by Abdoulwehhab, a- 
bout a century ago. He received 
an orthodox education at Me- 
dina, but early formed the de- 
sign of reforming the Mahome- 
tan religion. As his scheme of 
reform was not likely to gain 
ground in Mecca or Medina, 
where interest furnished obvi- 
ous motives for maintaining the 
ancient rites and customs, he 
began his career among the 
wandering Bedouin Arabs of 
the Desert. The sword was 
the weapon lie made use of to 
promulgate his religion. 

* Mosbeim, vol. v. p. 3.59. Willson 



With regard to the religious 
tenets of this sect, their found- 
er, while acknowledging fully 
the authority of the Koran, 
professed ohedience only to the 
literal text of this hook; re- 
ject 'mg all additions of the 
Imans and doctors of law, and 
condemning various practices 
of the Mahometans, which he 
supposed had sullied the puri- 
ty of the faith. 

The period of the reform of 
Abdoulwehhab may he reckon* 
ed from 1747. 

As his design was to receive 
onh the texts of the Koran, he 
annulled many rites, and re- 

■ atonement, p. 47. 



/ 



WAH 



>17 



WAH 



nounced many opinions gener- 
ally received by the Mahome- 
tans. For instance, every good 
mussulman believes, that after 
the death and burial of the 
prophet, his soul reunited itself 
to his body, and ascended to 
Paradise, mounted upon the 
mare of the angel Gabriel, 
named El Borak, the head and 
neck of which were of a line 
form. 

This event, indeed, is not an 
article of faith ; but every mus- 
sulman, who did not believe it, 
woidd be looked upon as an in- 
fidel, and treated as such. 
Abdoulwehhab asserted, that 
the mortal remains of the proph- 
et continued in the sepulchre 
the same as those of other men. 

Among the mussulmans it is 
customary to inter those, who 
have obtained the reputation of 
being virtuous, or saints, in a 
private sepulchre, more or less 
ornamented after their death, 
and to build a chapel over it, 
where their protection is invok- 
ed for the supplicant, and God 
is supposed to befriend their in- 
tercession. 

Already had the well-inform- 
ed mussulmans begun to des- 
pise these superstitions secretly, 
though they seemed to respect 
them in the eyes of the people. 
But Abdoulwehhab declared 
boldly, that this species of wor- 
ship rendered to the saints was 
a very grievous sin in the eyes 
of the Divinity, because it was 
giving him companions. In 
consequence of this his secta- 
ries have destroyed tho sepul- 



chres, chapels, and templef^ 
elevated to their honour. 

In virtue of this principle 
Abdoulwehhab forbids venera- 
tion or devotion to the person 
of the prophet as a very great 
sin. This does not prevent 
him from acknowledging his 
mission; but he pretends he 
was no more than another man, 
before God made use of him to 
communicate his divine word to 
men, and, that when his mis- 
sion was at an end, he became 
an ordinary man. 

It is on this account that the 
reformer has forbidden his fol- 
lowers to visit the tomb of the 
prophet at Medina. When they 
speak of it, instead of making 
use of the form employed by 
other mussulmans, namely, 
w Our Lord Mahomet, 55 or 
« Our Lord the Prophet of 
God, 55 they only say Mahomet. 

The grand doctrine of this 
sect is the unity of God. 
Their confession of faith is, 
" there is no other God than 
God ; Mahomet is the Prophet 
of God. 55 Their public criers 
made this profession of faith to 
be heard in all its extent, from 
the top of th e min arets of Mecca, 
which they have not destroyed, 
as well as the temple, which was 
under their dominion. They 
call themselves mussulmans by 
way of eminence, and when 
they speak of Islamites, they un- 
derstand only by that word the 
persons of their sect, which they 
look upon as the only orthodox. 
They esteem the Turks, and 
other Mahometans as schismat- 



WAL 



518 



WAL 



ics; but they do not treat 
them as idolaters, or infidels. 

Abdoulwehhab never offered 
himself as a prophet, as has 
been supposed. He only acted 
as a learned Sheik reformer, 
who was desirous of reducing 
the Mahometan religion to the 
primitive simplicity of the Ko- 
ran. 

The religious services of this 
sect are performed in the open 
sky, and not below the roofing 
of a mosque. They once gain- 
ed possession of Mecca and 
Medina. The former was tak- 
en in 1802, the latter in 1804. 
After they had conquered Ara- 
bia, they became formidable 
neighbours to the Pacha of E- 
gypt, who conducted the war 
against them with energy. By 
his strenuous exertions they 
were driven with loss from the 
Arabian coasts ; Mecca, Me- 
dina, and Jcdda were retaken 
and restored to the authority 
(*f the Porte and to the Ma- 
hometan worship. It does not, 
however, appear that this suc- 
cess is complete, or that its con- 
sequences wijl be permanent.^ 

WALDENSES, or Vau- 
nois. The antiquity of this 
denomination can be traced 
back four hundred years before 
the time of Luther, and twenty 
before Peter Waldo. Many 
i>» otestants suppose that Waldo 
derived his name from the WaU 
densest whose doctrine he a- 



dopted, and who were known 
by the name of Waldenses, or 
Vaudois, before he or his imme- 
diate followers existed. 

The learned Dr. Allix, in his 
history of the churches of Pied- 
mont, gives this account : 
" That for three hundred years 
or more, the bishop of Rome at- 
tempted to reduce the church 
of Milan under his jurisdiction : 
and at last the interest of Rome 
grew too potent for the church 
of Milan, planted by one of the 
disciples ; insomuch that the 
bishop and the people, rather 
than own their jurisdiction, re- 
tired to the vallies of Lucerne 
andAngrogne, and thence were 
called VallenseSf TVallenses, or 
The People in the Valleys"} 
From a confession of their faitl 
of nearly the above date, are 
extracted the following particu- 
lars.— (1.) That the scriptures 
teach that there is one Got 
almighty, all-wise, and all- 
good, who made all things bj 
his goodness; for he formed 
Adam in his own image anc 
likeness : but that by the envy 
of the devil, sin entered into the 
world, and that we are si nnen 
in and by Adam. — (2.) That 
Christ was promised to our fa- 
thers, who received the law 
that so knowing by the law 
their unrighteousness and in- 
sufficiency, the) might desin 
the coming of Christ, to satisfy 
for their sins, and accomplisl 



* Legrh's Travels in Egypt, p. 45. Travels of \li Bey, vol. ii. p. 44, 
118. Jacksori*s Journey from India, 1797. Dunbar's Essays. 

-J- Sic \lli\% History of the churches in Piedmont, and Perrin's History < 



WAL 



319 



WEL 



the law by himself. — (3.) That 
Christ was born in the time 
appointed by God the Father j 
that is to say, in the time when 
all iniquity abounded, that he 
might show us grace and mercy 
as being faithful. — (4.) That 
Christ is our life, truth, peace, 
and righteousness ; as also our 
pastor, advocate, and priest, 
who died for the salvation of 
all who believe, and is risen 
for our justification.- — (5.) That 
there is no mediator and advo- 
cate with God the Father, save 
Jesus Christ.— (6.) That after 
this life there are only two 
places, the one for the saved, 
and the other for the damned. 
— (7.) That the feasts, the vi- 
gils of saints, the water which 
they call holy, as also to ab- 
stain from flesh on certain days, 
and the like, but especially the 
masses, are the inventions of 
men, and ought to be rejected. 
— (8.) That the sacraments are 
signs of the holy thing, visible 
forms of the invisible grace; 
and that it is good for the faith- 
ful to use those signs, or visible 
j forms ; but that they are not 
essential to salvation. — (9.) 
That there are no other sacra- 
ments but baptism and the 
Lord's supper. — (10.) That we 
ought to honour the secular 
powers by subjection, ready 
obedience, and paying of trib- 
ute.* 

" The external history of the 



Waldenses," says Mr. Milner* 
" is little else than a series of 
persecution." In the thirteenth 
century, Pope Innocent III in- 
stituted a crusade against them, 
and they were pursued with 
unrelenting fury, and thousands 
were put to a cruel death. Their 
principles, however, continued 
unsubdued, and at the reforma- 
tion their descendants were 
reckoned among the protectants, 
with whom they were in doc- 
trine so congenial. But in the 
seventeenth century the flames 
of persecution were again re- 
kindled by the cruelty of Louis 
XIV. 

It affords much pleasure to 
hear from a clergyman of the 
church of England, who lately 
visited the Vales of Piedmont, 
that this people are by no means 
extinct, but preserve a pleas- 
ing vestige of their ancient pie- 
ty and simplicity among all the 
calamities of the late war, and 
the miseries it has introduced.! 

*WATERLANDIANS, a 
party of Mennonites, distin- 
guished by their prudence and 
moderation, who, in their Con- 
fessions, adhered closely to the 
language of the scriptures ; ex- 
pressed their peculiarities with 
much caution and reserve, 
avoiding the language and con- 
duct of the early Anabaptists.^ 

*WELCH INDIANS, (or 
PadoucaSiJn. colony supposed to 
have emigrated from Wales in 

* Perrin's History of the Waldenses, p. 226. Athenian Oracle, vol. i. p^ 
224 Milner's Church History, vol iii. ch. iv. 

f Jones' Hist, of the Waldenses. Brief Memoir of the Waldenses, by ft 
clergyman, 1815. 

t Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 464* new ed. 



WEL 



320 



WIC 



the twelfth century, (three hun- 
dred years hefore Columbus,) 
under Prince Madoc; and 
whose descendants still reside 
on the borders of the Missouri 
far to the westward of the Mis- 
sisippi.* Several accounts are 
to be found in Welch and other 
histories,, and various letters 
have appeared at different times 
in the Gentleman's and Month- 
ly Magazines. These accounts 
have been collected with addi- 
tions and remarks, in three 
pamphlets, two by the late Dr. 
E. Williams, and one by the 
Rev. G. Burder, referred to be- 
low. They were much con- 
firmed in conversations with 
Gen. Bowles, the Indian Chief, 
when in England ; by Mr. 
Chesholm, from the Creek In- 
dians, also in his visit to Phila- 
delphia; and by Mr. Hecke- 
welder, a Moravian gentleman 
at Bethlehem ; an abstract of 
these and other accounts was 
printed in the Weekly Register, 
for December 26, 1798. 

The substance of all the ac- 
counts is, that there is a nation 
of Indians of so much lighter 
complexion, as to indicate an 
European origin ; that their 
language is Welch, at least 
radically so ; that they have sa- 
cred hooks in that language, 

(which have been seen by na- 
tive Britons,) though they have 
lost the art of reading; and 



that there are vestiges of the 
European arts among them, 
particularly remnants of ear-* 
then ware, &c. Several na- 
tives of Wales, and some des- 
cendants from that nation in 
America, have expressed a 
great desire to go in search of 
this very distant country, and 
to commence a mission among 
them, which indeed was the ex- 
press object of Mr. Burder's 
pamphlet, f 

* WESLEYANS,the follow- 
ers of Messrs. John and Charles 
Weslev. See Methodists. 

*WHITEFIELDITES, a 
term applied to those of the early 
Methodists who sided with JMr. 
Whitefield and the Calvinists. 
See Methodists. 

WICKLIFFITES, a de- 
nomination which sprang up in 
England in the fourteenth cen- 
tury. They derived their name 
from John Wickliff, doctor and 
professor of divinity in the uni- 
versity of Oxford, a man of an 
enterprizing genius and extra- 
ordinary learning. He began 
with attacking the jurisdiction 
of the pope and the bishops, 
and declared that penance had 
no sort of merit in the sight of 
God, unless followed with a 
reformed life. He was a warm 
opposer of absolution ; for he 
alleged that it belonged to God 
alone to forgive sins ; but in- 
stead of acting as God's niiii- 

• Mr. W Owen fixes their situation between 37 and 43 degrees N. lat- 
and between 97 and HOW. long. Gentleman's Magazine, 1T91, vol. i. p. 

f Bitrder 9 ! Welch Indians, gvo. 1797 Dr. E. Williams* Enquiry into the 
truth of the discovery of America by Prince Madoc, and farther observations 
on ditto, 1792. Weekly Register, No* 4 and 38. 



WIL 



$21 



WIL 



isterfc, the Romish clergy took 
upon them, he said, to forgive 
sins in their own name. He also 
taught that external confession 
was not necessary to salvation, 
exclaimed against indulgences, 
prayers to the saints, the celib- 
acy of the clergy, the doctrine 
of transubstantiation, monastic 
vows, and other practices in the 
Roman Catholic church. He not 
only exhorted the laitj to study 
the scriptures, but also trans- 
lated them into English, in or- 
der to render the perusal of 
them more universal. The fol- 
lowers of WicklifT were also 
called Lollards.* 

WILHELMINIANS, in the 
thirteenth century, the disci- 
ples of Wilhelmina, a Bohemi- 
an woman who resided in the 
territory of Milan. She per- 
suaded a large number that the 
Holy Ghost was become incar- 
nate in her person for the salva- 
tion of a great part of mankind. 
According to her doctrine, none 
were saved by the blood of Je- 
sus but true and pious chris- 
tians ; while the Jews, Sara- 
cens, and imworthy christians 
were to obtain salvation through 
the Holy Spirit which dwelt in 
her ; and in consequence all 
which happened to Christ dur- 
ing his abode upon earth was 
to be repeated in her person. f 

WILKINSON, Jemima, an 
American female of some noto- 
riety in the last century. It is 

* Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 166. Gilpin's Life of Wicklff, p. 67— 73. 

f Mosheim, vol. iii. p. 131. 

i The Duke de Rochefoucault, in his travels in America in 1796, met with 
Jemima Wilkinson in the state of New York, and describes her as a personable 
feat artful woman. 

41 



said that she asserted, that in 
1776, she was taken sick, and 
actually died, and her soul went 
to reside in heaven. Soon af- 
ter, her body was re-animated 
with the spirit and power of 
Christ, upon which she set up 
as a public teacher ; and de- 
clared she had an immediate 
revelation for all she delivered, 
and was arrived to a state of 
absolute perfection. It is also 
said she pretended to foretell 
future events, to discern the 
secrets of the heart, and to have 
the power of healing diseases % 
and if any persons, who had 
made application to her, were 
not healed, she attributed it to 
their want of faith. She ac- 
knowledged no other name but 
that of Universal Friend. She 
made some converts in New 
York4 and in Rhode Island ; 
but chiefly in the Gennessee 
country. 

An ingenious young gentle* 
man, in his tour to the falls of 
Niagara, Montred, and Que- 
bec in 1812, was introduced to 
Jemima Wilkinson, and has 
given a very entertaining ac- 
count of the interview. x\mong 
other things he says, « Her 
command of the contents of the 
bible, and her readiness in the 
use of scripture language was 
surprising." He supposed that 
" like most of the false preten- 
ders to religious superiority, 
she made her claims to uncom- 



YOti 



322 



YOG 



mon inspiration with sinceri- 
ty." He, however, describes 
her as an ambitious and selfish 
woman ; whose mental powers 
were vigorous, who was acute 
and cunning, and must, he says, 
be skilled in human nature to 
have gained such an ascenden- 
cy over so many minds. She 
amassed a large fortune .by the 



donations of her followers, and 
lived in a luxurious and expen- 
sive manner/'* 

*WINCHESTERIANS, a 
name sometimes given to the 
admirers of Mr. Elhanan Win- 
chester, who preached the doc- 
trine of universal salvation 
both in England and America. 
See Universalists. 



*Y0GEYS, (Saxaisys, or 
Sunasees,) Hindoo Devotees, 
who practise a variety of self- 
tortures, and mortify the body 
in order to merit heavenly feli- 
city, and obtain the immaterial 
nature of Brahma, the supreme. 
In the Mahabarat, a Yogey is 
thus defined: "The man who 
keepeth the outward accidents 
from entering the mind, and 
his eyes fixed in contemplation 
between his brows ; who mak- 
eth his breath pass equally 

through his nostrils ; 

keeping his head, his neck, and 
his body steady without mo- 
tion, his eyes fixed on the point 
of his nose, looking at nothing 
else around," kc. he is a Yogey 
— and is forever blessed. 



These Yogey s, as practices 
of self-devotion, cast them- 
selves down on spikes stuck in 
bags of straw, walk on fire, 
pierce themselves with pins, 
and bore their tongues ; but 
the most famous act of devo- 
tion is swinging by means of 
hooks drawn through their 
backs and sides, and fastened 
with ropes to trees, by which 
they will spin round very rap- 
idly for half an hour or more. 
And some poor creatures, in 
order to be sure of going to 
heaven (as they suppose) cast 
themselves under the wheels of 
the chariot of Jaggernauf.i 
and are voluntarily crushed to 
death.:): 



* Sec Extract from a Journal of a tour to Niagara Falls, in the spring and 
rammer af 1812, in the Christian Disciple, September 1817. 

f In the interior part of Hindostan an idol, called Jaggernaut, is worship- 
ped by immense numbers, who make frequent pilgrimages to his temple in 
On these occasions the idol is brought forth on a stupendous ear or 
•, about sixty feet fn height, amidst the acclamations of hundn 
thousands of worshippers, who resort thither from various parts of India. 
Many of whom sacrifice them this idol ; numbers of pilgrims die on 

tad ; and their bodies frequently r< main unburied. See Buchanan's Re- 
18, p. 1 5, 106, and his Apology for Christianity in India. 

Sketches relating to the Hindoos. Ward's account of the religion and 

manners of the Hindoos. 



ZAB 



3£3 



ZUI 



ZABATHAI ZEVI, a cel- 
ebrated Jewish impostor, who 
appeared at Smyrna about 
1666, and pretending to be the 
Messiah, promised to deliver 
the Jews, and re-establish them 
in more than their pristine glo- 
ry. Multitudes of his nation 
acknowledged him for their 
Messiah and king, and many 
of his followers pretended to 
visions and prophetic ecstacies. 
At length he fell into the hands 
of the Grand Seignor, who 
commanded him to be set as a 
mark for his archers, to prove 
whether he was invulnerable. 
To avoid this trial Zevi re- 
nounced his vainglorious pre- 
tensions ; and saved his life by 
professing the Mahometan re- 
ligion. 

The denomination, of Zab- 
athaites is given to the follow- 
ers of Zabathai Zevi. The 
sect he formed survived him ; 
and he actually has yet, at Sa- 
lonichi, partisans, who, out- 
wardly professing Mahome- 
tanism, observe in secret the 
Judaic rites, marry among 
themselves, and all live in the 
same quarter of the city, with- 
out communicating with the 
mussulmans, except for the pur- 
pose of commerce, and in the 
mosques. 5 * 

Zabathai Zevi is said to have 
had many adherents among the 



Jews of England, Holland, 
Germany, and Poland, who 
have continued in small num- 
bers to our days. 

*ZABEANS, a name given 
to the Chaldeans, Persians, and 
other ancient Idolaters, who 
worshipped the Host of Hea- 
ven, and pretended to the arts 
of Astrology and JNecroinancy.f 
See Sabeans. 

ZACCHEANS, disciples of 
Zaccheus, a native of Palestine, 
who about the year 350 retired 
to a mountain near the city of 
Jerusalem, and there performed 
his devotions in secret; con- 
ceiving that prayer was only 
agreeable to God when per- 
formed secretly and in silence.! 
ZANZALIANS. SeeJaco- 
bites. 

^ZEALOTS, or ZEL0 T s,the 
followers of Judas of Galilee, 
who (like many others) com- 
mitted all manner of excesses, 
under pretence of zeal for God 
and his law.|| 

ZUINGLIANS, a branch of 
the ancient protestants ; so 
called from Ulric Zuinglius, a 
divine of Switzerland, who re- 
ceived the doctor's cap at Basil 
in 1501. Possessing an un- 
common share of penetration 
and acuteness of genius, he de- 
claimed severely against indul- 
gences, the mass, the celibacy 
of the clergy, and other doc- 



* Scotch Theol. Diet, in Messiah. Gregoire's Histoire Des Sectes Reli- 
gieuses. 

f Calmet's Diet. i Broug-hton, vol. ii. p. 516. 

!! Josephus' Antiq. lib. 18. Stackliouse's Hist, of the Bible, vol* v. p. 120. 



ZUI 



5£4 



ZUI 



trines of the Roman church. 
He differed from Luther in 
supposing only a, figurative pre- 
sence of the body and blood of 
Christ in the eucharist ; and 
simply considered it as a pious 
remembrance of Christ's death, 
and of the benefits it procured 
to mankind. He denied that 
either of the sacraments confers 
grace, and had some peculiar 
notions on the doctrines of orig- 



inal sin, grace, &c. He was also 
for removing out of the churches 
many things which Luther was 
disposed to treat with toleration 
and indulgence ; such as images, 
altars, wax-tapers, and other 
ceremonies. 

The religious tenets of this 
denomination were, in most 
other points, similar to those of 
the Lutherans.* 



Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 66—79. Milner, vol v. Cento 16, chap. 



xii* 



APPENDIX. 
A BRIEF SKETCH 

OP THE 

STATE OF RELIGION THROUGHOUT THE WORLD, 
BY MR. T. WILLIAMS. 



Notwithstanding the most important articles compris- 
ed in the second and third parts of the former editions of this 
work are incorporated in the preceding Dictionary, the edi- 
tor judged that the following bird's-eye view of all the reli- 
gions and principal religious denominations now existing in 
the world, might glean up a few remaining particulars that 
had been passed over, and form an acceptable appendage to 
the work : and in order to make it useful, as well as entertain- 
ing, he has subjoined a miscellany of observations, not oidy 
on the population and ecclesiastical government of the various 
nations, but on the present state of vital and evangelical reli- 
gion, and the exertions making for the propagation of the gos- 
pel throughout the world. 

In so compressed a form it would be impossible to cite all 
the authorities he has made use of, which are in general the 
most modern, as well as authentic, he could procure ;* and on 
the state of religion, and the heathen, he has particularly con« 
suited the transactions and reports of missionary and bible so- 
cieties, and the most respectable periodical publications of a 
religious nature. It is but jus't to acknowledge, that for the first 
hint of these tables he is indebted to a tract of the great Dr. 
Carey of Serampore, (but then in England,) entitled, « An 
Enquiry into the obligations of christians to use means for 
the conversion of the heathen:" a tract which laid the foun- 
dation of the Baptist Mission Society, and was one considera- 
ble mean of calling the attention of other denominations to the 
work. It deserves to be added, that this excellent man, after- 
pointing out the way to others, was himself one of the first to 
lead in the great work which he recommended. 

* Principally Pinkertou's Geography f and sundry Voyages and 
Travels, &c. 



326 APPENDIX. 



Religious Denominations established or tolerated, 
the former printed in Italics. 

Countries. EUROPE. Pop. in mill. 

England and Church of England, or Episcopalians,* with 

Waxes, a general toleration of all sects of Dissenters 

in religious worship ; but which however are 

restrained, by the Corporation and Test Acts, 

from certain offices of trust and honour. 

It is difficult to estimate the number of 
Dissenters in this country. The Arminian 
Methodists (including the new Connexion) 
amount to more than 180,000 in Society, be- 
sides occasional hearers. The Calvinistic Me- 
thodists arc probably equally numerous with 
the Arminian j and the Independents, Bap- 
tists, and Presbyterians, with a few other 
sects, may be reckoned equal to both classes 
of Methodists. The Roman Catholics are es- 
timated at nearly 100,000 ; and the Friends 
are very numerous ; so that the whole body 
of Dissenters must certainly exceed a Mil- 
lion, and make about one tenth of the popu- 
lation. All who are not Dissenters are gene- 
rally considered Members of the Establish- 
ment ; but if we farther deduct all who make 
no profession of religion, and who attend 
to no forms of worship, the number of real 
Churchmen must be still considerably re- 
duced. For a man who neither believes the 
articles, nor attends the worship of the Estab- 
lishment, has no more right to be called a 
Churchman than a Mahometan or a Chinese. 11 

1 It will be readily perceived, that the account of "the present 
state of religion," &c. in the countries mentioned, is placed oppo- 
site to 9 and not offer the statement of their population and of the 
numerical strength of the different reli-ious denominations. 



APPENDIX. 327 



Present State of Religion, 8fc. 



EUROPE. , 
England and Among the circumstances favourable to vital 
Wales. religion in this country may be reckoned the fol- 
lowing. 1. The institution of bible societies, and 
particularly that great engine of benevolence, 
" The British and Foreign Bible Society," which, 
in ten years has been the mean, in whole or in 
part, at home and abroad, of printing and distri- 
buting 1,148,850 bibles and testaments. With 
this parent Society are connected more than four 
hundred Auxiliary and Branch Societies, in the 
British dominions only. 

2. The general establishment of Free Schools for 
the education of the poor : as 1. Sunday Schools 
for children employed in manufactories and man- 
ual labour. 2. Daily Schools either for chil- 
dren of the Church of England, as Dr. BelPs ; or 
for all denominations, as those of the British and 
Foreign School Society, whose influence promises 
to be as extensive as that of the Bible Society. 
3. Schools for adults, whose education had been 
neglected till they came to years of maturity.* 

3. Village preaching, by which the gospel is 
spreading in all the obscure and distant parts of 
the kingdom, where it had not usually been heard. 

4. Societies for Foreign Missions, which now 
exist in almost every denomination of Christians, 
and extend to every quarter of the w T orld. 

* Among the other benevolent institutions in England which 
are mentioned by Mr. Williams, the '-London Society for Promoting 
Christianity amongst the Jews," which he has not mentioned, holds 
a distinguished rank. A brief account of this institution is given 
under the article Jews. From the last report (if the society it ap- 
pears, that a great field of usefulness is opened to their labours in 
Poland and Russia, where there are vast numbers of Jews. The 
Committee have turned their attention to these countries, and pro- 
pose to send missionaries among them. See Boston Recorder, 
May 7,181:*. 



328 APPENDIX* 



Countries* Religious Denominations, Sfc. Pop. in mill. 



Scotland and The Scotch Kirk, or Presbyterians ; the 
the adjacent Protestant Dissenters from which are call- 
Isles, ed Seceders, and are divided into Burghers, 
Anti-burghers, and the Relief Kirk, &c, It 
is remarkable that Episcopalians also, by 
crossing the Tweed, become Dissenters. & 

Ireland. Church of England, with the like toleration 
as in England; and the like disabilities as to 
the Catholics, who form (says Mr. Butler) 
« two thirds of the population of Ireland. " 

The Wesleyan Methodists have in their 
Societies above 29,000 ; (besides occasional 
hearers ;) there is also a considerable num- 
ber of Presbyterians (especially in the North) 
and other protectant dissenters ; so that the 
established religion can hardly claim more 
than one fourth of the population. 5 

Holland and The Reformed Church, or Calvinism, is the 
the Nether- Established Religion of Holland, with a 
lands. general toleration to all other sects ; but 
though Calvinism must be considered as the 
established religion, agreal part of the people 
are Arminians, under the forms and discipline 
of Calvin, as is also (he case in Scotland. The 
Netherlander are generally Catholics, with 



APPENDIX. 



520 



Present State of Religion, Sfc. 



5. Benevolent institutions, adapted to meet 
and to relieve almost every species of human mis- 
ery ; and these supported in times and circum- 
stances which bear very hard upon the class of 
persons, by whom they are chiefly maintained. 

In Wales, it may be added, the children of the 
poor have derived great advantage from Circu- 
lating schools, which remain for a certain time 
to teach the children of a particular district, and 
then remove to instruct another. 
Scotland Partakes in all that has been said of England % 
and has been particularly benefited by the insti- 
tution of Sabbath schools, which have been in- 
troduced in many parts of the country with 
great success. 

Ireland Is certainly far behind England in mental cul- 
ture, and has been kept back by priestcraft and 
superstition. Now 7 , however, the various denom- 
inations of Protestants are vying with each oth- 
er in the propagation of evangelical doctrine 
through the country. The Sunday school, Hi- 
bernian, and other societies are displaying great 
zeal in teaching the rising generation to read the 
bible, not only in the English, but in the Irish 
language, where the former is not understood. 



HoLLAfttn Before the French invasion of Holland, there 
were reckoned 1579 ministers in the establish- 
ment, 90 of the Walloon Church, [or Protestant 
Church of the United Netherlands,] 800 Catho- 
lics, 53 Lutherans, 43 Arminians, and 312 Bap- 
tists. The French introduced their infidel phi- 
losophy, but it was not adapted to the people, 
"who are generally grave and steady. There are 
42 



330 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations, Sfc. 



Pop. in mill. 



a limited toleration to all other sects ; but be- 
ing now brought under the same government 
as Holland, will probably much increase the 
Protestant interest. 1 

Denmark and Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics ; the 
its Islands. latter with Mennonites (or Baptists) exist 

under some restraints and disabilities. 3 



Sweden, Nor- Lutherans, Calvinists, Catholics, and Swc- 
way, and their denborgians, (or New Jerusalem Church,) 
dependencies, which are in Sweden numerous and res- 
pectable. The Catholics are under some re- 
straints as to the publicity of their religious 
ceremonies. The recent union between Nor- 
way and Sweden will make no alteration in 
the state of religion, as they were both Prot- 
estant kingdoms. * 



Prussia. Lutherans, Calvinists, and Catholics, with a 

fire toleration to others; which may partly 
be attributed to the infidel principles of Fred- 



APPEND FX. 



331 



Present State of Religion, §c. 



also many pious christians, who have not only 
contributed freely of their property to the cause 
of religion; but several of the most useful mis- 
sionaries in Africa have been from that country, 
as Vanderkemp, Kicherer, &c. 

Denmark. The Danes have formerly taken an active part 
in missions to the heathen, and have particularly 
countenanced the United Brethren in Green- 
land, ^ and in their West India islands. They 
had also the honour to patronize and foster the 
Baptist Mission at Serampore, when discounte- 
nanced by our East India Company. The king, 
it is said, has expressed a great desire for the in- 
struction of his subjects, and the British system 
of education is intended to be introduced. The 
scriptures have been printed at Copenhagen in 
the Icelandic dialect, for the use of Iceland. 

Sweden. A Bible Society has been formed at Stockholm, 
which has co-operated with that in London, in 
printing the scriptures in the Swedish language 
and that of Lapland. f The Stockholm Society is 
also active in the circulation of religious tracts in 
those languages. A Bible Society has been also 
formed at Abp in Finland, by the aid of the Lon- 
don Society, for the printing of the Finnish 
scriptures, to which the present emperor of Rus- 
sia has contributed 5000 rix dollars. 

Prussia. Berlin is famous for an excellent seminary for 

the education of Protestant ministers ; and sev- 
eral missionaries to the heathen have been fur- 
nished from that quarter to different societies in 
England. A Bible Society was formed at Ber- 

* The Danish missionaries have made two different translations 
of the new testament, both of which have been printed in the 
Greenland language. 

t In 1811, the British and Foreign Bible Society published a 
large edition of the new testament in the Laponese language. 



332 



APPENDIX, 



Countries. 



Beligious Denominations, §c. 



Pop. in mill. 



eric the Great, and partly to the influence of 
Protestant principles in the country. 8 

Saxony Is to be divided, which will give nearly a 

million of subjects to Prussia (included above) 
and leave about 1,200,000 subjects under 
the old government. The inhabitants are 
chiefly Lutherans or Calvinists. 1 

Poland. Catholics, with toleration to Protestants un- 

der certain disabilities. The Lutherans are 
governed by a consistory, and the Calvinists 
by a principal and three seniors. This state 
is about being again formed into a distinct 
government, under the protection of Russia. 
Transylvania in 1787 contained 28,700 Socin- 
ians, usually called the Polish Brethren. 6 

Austria, The established religion of this great em- 

Hungary, and pire was the Catholic, but from the inter- 
Bohemia, mixture of Protestant states, contains a con- 
siderable number of Lutherans, Calvinists, 
and other Protestants of all denominations ; 
and, by the new constitution, there is to be a 
perfect equality of rights and privileges among 
the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Calvinis- 
tic churches. In Hungary it was calculated 
in 1787, that the Catholics and Protestants 
were nearly equal ; besides which this king- 
dom was stated to contain 223,000 Jews, 
50,000 Gypsies, and a great number of Greek 
christians. 26 



Switzerland, Switzerland is divided into cantons : those 

Piedmont, fcc. of Bem* Zurich, &C, are Calvinists; Uri, 

Schweitz, kc. Catholic; some arc composed 



APPENDIX. 



333 



Present State of Religion, Sfc. 



lin in 1806, to which the king himself was both 

a contributor and patron. 
Saxony. Little is known of the religious state of Saxony, 

which has been wholly occupied with political 

events ; but we should hope to find in the native 

country of Luther a considerable number of true 

Protestants. 
Poland. The plan of a Bible Society for this country is 

just formed under the auspices of the Emperor 

Alexander. 



Austria. The establishment of Bible and Missionary Soci- 
eties in various parts of Germany must greatly 
subserve the cause of Christianity. On its being 
represented to the British and Foreign Bible So- 
ciety in London, that there were upwards of a 
million of Protestants in Hungary, who were in 
great want of bibles, and too poor to purchase 
them, 500/. was given for the formation of a so- 
ciety in that country, for printing and circulat- 
ing the scriptures in the Hungarian and Sclavo- 
nian dialects, which has been effected. Bible 
Societies have also been lately formed at Dresden 
and Hanover. The United Brethren have spread 
a sweet savour of evangelical religion throughout 
Bohemia, Moravia, and various other parts of 
Germany, from whence also they have sent mis- 
sionaries to the remotest parts of the earth. 

Switzerland. The Canton of Baslehas of late been remarka- 
ble for activity in promoting the circulation of 
the scriptures* and the cause of mission^, so long 



S34 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations, Sfc. 



Pop. in mill . 



of both religions, and the French introduced 
a considerable portion of infidelity. The 
Vallais, or inhabitants of the vallies of Pied- 
mont, were formerly called Waldenses, of 
which there are still some remains j but a 
great part of the people were driven, by a long 
and cruel persecution, within the pale of the 
Roman church, in which they still continue. 



France. 



Spain and 
Portugal. 



The Roman Catholic religion is declared to 



24 



be that of the majority of the French people, 
and is supported by the state ; but the state 
provides equally for the ministers of the re- 
formed church, either of the Lutheran or Cal- 
vinistic profession, and superintends even 
the synagogue of the Jews. Difference of re- 
ligion is no bar to the advancement of ,any 
French citizen to the highest offices of the 
state. The Protestants are very numerous 
in the south of France, but with a great num- 
ber of infidels throughout the country. 
Catholics, without toleration to any other de- 
nomination. The late Cortes showed a dis- 
position to enlighten the people, and tolerate 
Protestants ; but Ferdinand VII, since his 
return, has re-established the order of Jesu- 
its, and the Inquisition ;* and liberal men 

* The pope, however, has endeavoured to effect a reform in the 
inquisition. He has ordered, that the proceedings in ecclesiastical 
tribunals shall he regulated by the same principles as those which 
govern in civil and criminal cases. Every individual, of whatever 
religious persuasion he may be, will he admitted as a witness, if 
cited by the accused. Relations, domestics, and persons of infa- 
mous characters are to he excluded The proceedings shall he pub- 
lic; and no witness shall ever be admitted to give hearsay evi- 
dence. In i\\^. Brief containing these orders, the pope says, "The 
way to render religion powerful, is to show that she is divine, and 
that she brings to mankind only consolation and blessings. The 
precept of our divine Master, love one another, ought to be the uni- 
versal law." See Christian Observer, May 1816. 



APPENDIX. 83l5 



Present State of Religion, <$*c. 



as they had any means left them. The modern 
Waldenses, who are a simple and pious people 
are divided into thirteen parishes with each a 
minister ; they had formerly fifteen great schools, 
ninety smaller, and two Latin schools. Both 
the ministers and schools subsisted in great 
measure by charitable assistance from Holland, 
Switzerland, and even England ; but the events 
of the late war have reduced them to much 
wretchedness and misery. 

France. In the South of France the gospel is heard with 

eagerness, and evangelical ministers from other 
countries are received with open arms ; the fullest 
liberty of conscience is allowed, and there is an 
university for the education of the Protestant 
clergy. Mr. Martin, a young minister from Bour- 
deaux, is now in England for the express purpose 
of learning the new system of education, with a 
view to introduce it into his native country. 

Spain. The introduction of an English army into these 

countries had a tendency to weaken the prejudices 
of the people against Protestants as heretics, 
though there is little to recommend true religion 
in the general morals of soldiers. Some of the 
late Cortes were also favourable to a reformation 
of religion, and of the priests ; which has been 
lately given as the true reason of their being so 
obnoxious to the present government, which is 
certainly under the influence of the church. 



S56 APPENDIX. 



Countries, Religious Denominations, 8fc. Pop. in mill 

■ , A 

have been made the objects of persecution. 
The Catholic clergy in Spain are estimated 
at 200,000, and in Portugal but little less. In 
Portugal the same bigotry and superstition 
prevails, but the assistance they have received 
from the English inclines them to somewhat 
more liberality ; and English Protestants 
may live unmolested, though not beloved. 15 

Italy, includ- Rome is the metropolis of the Catholic 
iug Naples and church, and the popedom. No toleration 
Sicily, to Protestants can be expected here, though 

Sardinia, &c. the pope shows some peculiar civilities to 
the English nation. There are nine or ten 
thousand Jews resident in Rome and its vi- 
cinity. 

The inhabitants of Naples and Sicily (a- 
bout six millions) are also Catholics; but 
when under the government of Murat, (for- 
merly one of Buonaparte's generals,) a degree 
of toleration prevailed, especially at Naples, 
which was favourable to the introduction of 
the gospel. In 1782 there were counted in 
Naples above 45,525 priests, 24,694 monks, 
20,793 nuns ; but the next year a decree 
passed to dissolve 466 convents, which must 
have greatly lessened them. 19 

Tuukky in The empire is Mahometan, and toleration 
Europe, with is purchased by the payment of a capitation 
the Isles of tlje lax. Of christians, those of the Greek 
Archipelago, church are far the most numerous, and are 
in some parts (as in Moldavia and Wallachia) 
admitted to places of trust and honour. The 
Greeks, iu general, are subject to the patri- 
arch of Constantinople in ecclesiastical mat- 
ters ; but there are some Armenians, Copts. 



APPENDIX. 



337 



Present State of Religion, Sfc. 



Italy. A Protectant congregation has been lately form- 

ed at Naples ; the government has granted them 
one of the unoccupied churches for their worship, 
and there seems a great disposition to listen to 
evangelical preaching. It is said also, that the 
pope has complained of the Protestant worship's 
being tolerated at Venice* 



Turkey. It is hoped among the Greek, as well as Prot- 
estant christians, thinly scattered over this em- 
pire, may be found the seed of a future christian 
church, whenever it may please God to open a 
door for the gospel to enter this country. 

43 



33$ 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Russia in 

Europe. 



Religions Denominations. <$*c. 



Pop in mill. 



Nestorians, &c. The Jews are very numerous, 
and subject to a chief of their own nation. 
The Greek church is the establishment in 
this country, with a tree toleration to Raskol- 
niks, or Dissenters, as well as to Catholics, 
Protestants, and Jews.* 

The church is governed, not by the patri- 
arch of Constantinople, as formerly ; but by 
a grand national council of ecclesiastics, in 
which the emperor has a layman of high rank 
as his representative. The church service is 
performed in the old Sclavonian language. 
[Pinkerton.] 



ASIA. 



Russia in The Greek Church is the established reli- 

Asia, includ- gion in all the civilized provinces; but with 

ing Siberia, a general toleration throughout this vast em- 

Kainschatka, pire. A great part of the inhabitants of the 

kc. desert are Pagan Tartars of the Sam man 

religion. Some attach great importance to 

the form of their whiskers ; and the Altaians 

arc so fond of military show, that they dress 

up their idol deity in the uniform of an officer 

of dragoons. The Kamschatkans have been 

converted to the Greek religion by a ten years' 

< xemption from all taxes. 9 

* The emperor Alexander has lately issued an Ukase at Pe- 
tersburgh, by winch peculiar privileges are granted to Jews who be- 
come converts to Christianity. They arc to form a society under 
the title of Jewish Christians : and are to he established as colo- 
nists upon (lie land of the crown, to form separate communities, and 
to enjoy a temporary exemption from taxes. Privileges, however, 
are continued to the Jews, independent of their conversion to Chris- 
tianity, though they are more fully to he enjoyed on that event. 
See Literary Panorama, 1 



APPENDIX. 



Present State of Religion, <^c. 



Russia in The emperor's patronage of Bible Societies^ in 
Europe. Petersburg^ Moscow, &c. cannot but have a fa- 

vourable aspect to the cause of true religion. 
Mr. Pinkerton, who has visited this country, gi ves 
a pleasing account of the orthodoxy of the Greek 
church, as to the main points of the christian reli- 
gion, and mentions several denominations of Ras- 
kolniks, (or Dissenters,) who discover much of 
the life and power of religion. 



ASIA. 

Russia in The United Brethren have longhad a missionary 
Asia. establishment at Sarepta, and the Russian gov- 

ernment encouraged Protestant settlements on the 
banks of the Wolga. Some years since the Ed- 
inburgh Missionary Society also attempted a mis- 
sion at Karass near Astracan : b ut all are 
broken up (at least for the present) by the calam- 
itous effects of the war. The missionaries of 
both settlements have, however, in the mean 
time been usefully and honourably employed in 
translating the new testament ; the one, (whose 
work is already in circulation,) into the Turkish 
language, and the other into that of the Kalmuck 
Tartars, many of whom have embraced Christi- 
anity in the Greek church. A mission is also in 
contemplation to the Mogul, and Manjur Tar- 
tars, who reside in that part of Siberia, which 
borders on the Chinese empire. 

* The Bible Society in Russia print the sacred scriptures in all 
the languages spoken in the Russian empire* 



340 



APPENDIX, 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations, Sfc. 



Pop. in mill. 



Turret in Mahometans occupy Palestine, or the holy 
Asia, land, Syria, Mesopotamia, and other coun- 

tries, the scene of scripture history : but there 
are also many Jews^ and Christians, of vari- 
ous denominations, who are indulged, by pay- 
ing for it, with living under the ecclesiastical 
government of their respective patriarchs, 
whether of Jerusalem or Antioch, Alexandria 
or Constantinople. The same may be said 
of the Nestorians, Armenians, and other re- 
puted Sectaries. 10 

Arabia. Mahometans, Sabeans, and Wahabees. 8 

Persia, Mahometans, of the sect of Ali ; (who differ 

from the Turks as to the true successour of 
Mahomet ;) also Sufis and Gaurs, or Guebres, 
the disciples of Zoroaster. 10 

Tartary. Malwmetans, Pagans, and worshippers of 

the Grand Lama. See Shamans. 6 

China. Pagans of various sects, but chiefly wor- 

shippers of Foe. There are some Catholics, 
Greeks, and Jews among them, rather by con- 
nivance than legal toleration. The Russians 
have a church at Pekin, and the Jews a syn- 
agogue at Kai-song-fou. The Catholics 
notwithstanding the persecution they have 
met with, boast of 60,000 converts still in 
Pckin. 250 

Japan. Pagans, particularly Sintoos, Budsoes, and a 

* The London Society for promoting Christianity amongst the 
Jews contemplate Bending missionaries to those of that nation in 
Palestine. See Boston Recorder, Oct, 7, 1817. 



APPENDIX. 



341 



Present State of Religion, <$fc. 



Bible Societies have been formed, not only at 
Petersburgh and Moscow under royal patronage, 
but in the provinces of Esthonia and Livonia, 
for the express purpose of printing the new testa- 
ment and religious tracts in those dialects. 

Turkey, No mission has yet been attempted to these 
Arabia, countries, but the way is preparing by printing the 

Persia, scriptures in almost all the various languages of 

Tartary. the East. Amission was attempted by the late 

Mr. Bloomfield at the Isle of Malta, with a view 
to introduce the gospel into the Greek Isles, and 
eventually into Turkey : but the pestilence which 
raged there, and the death of that missionary, 
have hitherto retarded the object. It is not, 
however, forgotten ; Dr. Naudi has been attempt- 
ing to excite attention to it among the christians 
residing on the borders of the Mediterranean ; 
and mentions it as a promising circumstance, 
that there have been of late many conversions of 
Jews residing in those parts. A late decree in 
Persia has permitted the public reading of the 
scriptures. The new testament has been print- 
ed in Persian and Arabic. 

China. The Jesuits undertook a mission to this country 

in the sixteenth century, on the plan of blending 
the Catholic religion with that of Foe and the 
philosophy of Confucius ; this however was dis- 
approved by Pope Innocent X, and he enjoined a 
renuciation of their idolatries. In 1788 it was 
reported that the Catholics had, in the course of 
thirty years, made £7,000 converts in the prov- 
ince of Suschuen, and 30,000 in Nankin ; but a 
storm of persecution gathered soon after this, and 
the name of Christianity became peculiarly ob- 
noxious in China, A Chinese edict has lately 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations, Sfc. 



Pop. in mill. 



kind of moral philosophers* (See Japanese. J 
The celebrated Francis Xavier, and other 
Jesuits, commenced a mission here in 1549, 
and were followed by the Franciscans. Their 
success at first was rapid and extraordinary; 
but their imprudence (as is asserted) brought 
on a persecution which lasted forty years, 
and ended in their utter extermination, 25 

The worship of the Grand, Lama is the es- 
tablished religion, (See Thibetians,) mixed 
with various shades of Paganism. 2 

The Birman and Siamese Hindoos are dis- 
ciples, not of Brahma, but of Boodu ; but 
the Malays are chiefly Mahometans. Some 
Dutch and Portuguese settlements exist in 
different parts of this extensive country. 
The Catholics boast of 300,000 converts in 
Tonquin, and 16Q,000 in Cochin-china, 20 



Thibet, or 

Tibet. 

Ixdia beyond 
the Ganges, 
including the 
Birman em- 
pire,Malaya, 
Siam, &c. 



Hindoostan* The native inhabitants are Hindoos (fol- 
lowers of Brahma) Mahometans and Persees ; 
among whom, about fourteen millions are 
reckoned to be British subjects. The Af- 
ghans are supposed to be the descendants of 
the ten tribes of the Jews carried Into captivi- 
ty, to whom a mission is projected from this 
country. Under the article, ' Syrian Chris- 
tians/ LntHe Dictionary, it is mentioned that 
there is a considerable body of professing 
christians in the interiour of the country. I 
would add, from the report of Dr. Kerr, the 
christians of St. Thomas arc stated at 70 or 



APPENDIX. S42 



Present State of Religion, 8fc. 



been issued against the introduction of mission- 
aries and their books into this country, yet Mr, 
Morrison* has been long employed at Canton 
and Macao, in translating the scriptures and in- 
structing the natives, and has lately been joined 
by Mr. Milne ; and though they may not pene- 
trate directly into the interiour of China, there is 
no doubt but they will send in the scriptures by 
means of the natives, whose curiosity seems much 
excited. 

India. The American Baptists have a mission at Ran- 

goon, a sea-port town in the Birman empire ; 
consisting of Messrs. Judson and Haught. 
Messrs. Coleman and Wheelock were ordained 
in Boston, Sept. 10, 1817, to join the same mis- 
sion. 

The missionaries at Serampore have present- 
ed a press and Birman types to their brethren 
at Rangoon. Mr. Judson has published a cate- 
chism and religious tract in the Birman lan- 
guage. More missionaries are solicited for this 
station. 

Hindoostan. Almost all the existing Missionary Societies 
have made attempts to convert the Hindoos. 
The w Society for promoting Christian Knowl- 
edge" has missionaries at Trinchinopally, Tan- 
jore, Madras, and Cuddalore. The Danes, 
while they had possessions in the East Indies, 
were active in this good work. The Baptistsj 

* Mr. Morrison has effected the important work of translating 
the new testament into the Chinese language. He has also trans- 
lated the book of Genesis and the Psalms. 

t The Baptist missionaries in the East Indies are eminently 
distinguished for their zealous and successful efforts to convert the 
heathen. " The lahours of a Carey, a Marshman, and a Ward 
have excited the admiration of the Christian world. Under their 



344 APPENDIX. 

Countries. Religious Denominations, Sfc. Pop in mill. 

80,000 ; the Syrian Catholics at 90,000, and 
the Roman Catholics (strictly so) at 35,000. 
For the use of the Syrian christians, a Ma- 
layan version of the New Testament has been 
lately printed at Bombay.* 100 

For the religion of the natives, see Hindoos 
and Fogeys. 



* The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
have under their patronage at Bombay, Messrs. Newell and Hall, 
who have lately established a printing press. There are also un- 
der the same patronage, five or more missionaries in, or near Cey- 
lon. In 1817, five missionaries were ordained by the same board, 
some of whom are to be sent to Bombay, and the others are to in- 
struct the Indians in North America. 

Contributions have been repeatedly made in America for the 
translation of the scriptures into the Eastern languages. See Dr. 
Holmes' discourse before the Society for Foreign Missions, 1815 $ 
and Boston Recorder, 1817. 



APPEXDIX. 9fSl 



Present State of Religion, fyc. 



have been particularly successful ; besides the 
settlement at Serampore, they have missionaries 
at Cutwa, Goamalty, Dinageporc, Saddomahl, 
&c. in Bengal, and in other parts of India. Cal- 
cutta itself is not the seat of infidelity as former- 
ly ; but contains many hundred serious chris- 
tians in all the ranks of society. 

The Missionary Society of London has mis- 
sionaries in Vizigapatam, Madras, Ganjam, Bel- 
lary, Chinsurah, Oodagerry, &c. The Society 
for missions to Africa and the East has also 
two or three missionaries, with native readers 
and catechists ; and there are perhaps, among 
all the societies, nearly a hundred persons en- 
gaged in the instruction of a hundred millions of 
inhabitants. 

The United Brethren had a mission in the 
neighbourhood of Tranquebar, and attempted one 
in the Nicobar Islands, but both have failed. 

An Auxiliary Bible Society has been formed 
at Calcutta to co-operate with the society in Lon- 
don, and with the Baptist missionaries, in trans- 
lating and printing the scriptures in every con- 
siderable language of the East ; and great pro- 
gress has been already made in this important 
work.* 

superintendence,* the sacred scriptures are translating into thirty- 
three different languages. At the same time they have not less 
than twenty mission stations, which are occupied by more than 
fifty f preachers, scattered over the different regions of the East, to 
the distance of four thousand miles. At most of these stations 
Christian churches are established, in which are united Hindoos 
and Mussulmans ; Armenians and Europeans. Bramins also of 
every order have renounced Cast, and embraced the gospel of Christ." 
-See Dr. Baldwin's Sermon, delivered at Philadelphia, May 7, 1817. 
* Calcutta is the seat of the first Protestant Bishop's See in In- 
dia : the diocess extending over all the territories of the company. 
44 



C46 APPENDIX. 



Countries. Religious Denominations, Sfc. Pop. in mill. 

Asiatic Isles, Pagans and Mahometans, with an inter- 
Ceylon, Cel- mixture of European settlers of various na- 
ebes, Bor- tions. The inhabitants of Amboyna, a Dutch 
neo, Java,&c. settlement, were in 1796 more than 45,000, 
among whom were nearly 16,000 Protestants, 
and about 25 christian chapels. The native 
religion of Ceylon is the same as that of the 
Birmans ; besides which, it is said to contain 
100,000 Protestants, 50,000 Roman Catho- 
lics, and in the whole, about a million and a 
half of inhabitants. 20 



AUSTRALASIA. 

Under this term are comprehended the vast 
and innumerable islands of the South Sea. 
New Geographers are not yet agreed, whether 

Holland, to call this a continent or an island, or sever- 
al adjacent islands ; the whole length being 
1960 miles, and its breadth 1680, which is 
nearly two thirds the size of Europe, besides 
the surrounding islands. The original in- 
habitants are savages of two or three races, 
and in the lowest state of barbarism. In 
1770, Capt. Cook took possession of the eas- 
tern coast in the name of his Britannic Ma- 
jesty, and called it New South Wales, and 
here a colony has been settled, at Sidney Cove, 
chiefly formed of convicts from Great Bri- 
tain. Dr. Carey estimated the population at 
twelve millions ; but I can find no authority 
to justify such a calculation ; the coast is 
thinly peopled, and great part of the intcri- 
our perhaps uninhabited. Van [Dieman's 



APPENDIX. 347 



Present State of Religion, S(c. 



Asiatic isles. The Missionary Society has three missionaries 
at Batavia, the capital of the Isle of Java, under 
the protection of the British government ; one of 
whom is invited to Amboyna, the chief of the 
Molucca Isles. Here many Chinese reside, and 
others trade, by whom it is expected Christianity 
may be carried into the heart of China. The 
same Society has two or three missionaries in 
Ceylon, and the Baptists one. The Methodists 
have also very recently commenced a mission in 
this Island, and all have been favourably re- 
ceived. A Bible Society was formed at Colum- 
bo in this Island, 1812, 

AUSTRALASIA. 

New South At Sidney cove in 1809 the population amount- 
Waxes. ed to between eight and nine thousand, and has 
been gradually increasing. The gospel is 
preached by Mr. Marsden, chaplain to the colo- 
ny and schools, opened under his patronage. 
Several of the missionaries sent to the South 
Seas have occasionally resided and preached here ; 
schools have been opened both for the Europe- 
ans and natives, and one of them has met with 
very encouraging success in his attempts to teach 
the latter, who prove far more docile than was 
expected. 



348 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations , Sfc. 



Pop. in mill. 



land, formerly supposed a part of New Hol- 
land, is found to be a separate island. On 
mature consideration I cannot rate the whole 
population at more than 

New Zealand is the most considerable isl- 
and in this neighbourhood, being about six 
hundred miles long, and a hundred and fifty 
broad. The others are inferiour islands, dif- 
fering greatly in population, but the whole 
probably not exceeding 

After all that navigators have said, I dare 
not reckon the inhabitants of these islands at 



New Zea- 
land, New 
Guinea, New 
Britain and 
Ireland, &c. 

Polynesia. 

Pelew Isles, 
Ladrones. Ca- 
rolines, Sand- 
wich Isles. 

Marquesas, 
Society Is. 
&c. 



more than the preceding. Pinkerton remarks 
that navigators have overrated them at least 
ten to one. 

This is proved to be the case with Capt. Cook ; 
and it is not likely that either Forster or La 
Perouse was more accurate. Otaheite had 
been rated at 160,000 ; the missionaries found 
it to contain little more than 16,000. On the 
other hand Mr. Pinkerton, who makes this 
remark, has been quite as much mistaken in 
underrating the population of some other pla- 
ces, particularly the Cape. I take the pop- 
ulation collectively at 



AFRICA. 

States of Mahometans, with a considerable number of 

Barbary. Jews ; but few christians, excepting what are 

in a state of slavery. 3 



APPENDIX. 



S49 



Present State of Religion, <$*c. 



New Zea- An island (600 miles in length by 150) has been 
xand. lately made a missionary station, by the Church 

Society for missions to Africa and the East. 



Otaheite. The first efforts of the London Missionary Soci- 
ety were directed to the islands in the South Pa- 
cific Ocean. The missionaries were called to 
endure many trials, and exposed to peculiar diffi- 
culties. But after the perseverance of more than 
twenty years, a permanent mission has been es- 
tablished at Otaheite. In 1812, Pomare, the 
king of this island, avowed himself a christian. 
Many have followed his example, and diligently 
attend the ordinances of religion* Schools have 
been established to instruct the natives, particu- 
larly their children. A christian church has been 
formed among the natives of Otaheite, and civ- 
ilization may be expected to advance rapidly. 
Missionaries have also been sent to Eimeo and 
Tongataboo ; and have converted many of the 
inhabitants of these Islands.* 



AFRICA. 

Babbart. Christianity can be expected to make no pro- 
gress in these states while the system of piracy 
is tolerated and every christian made a slave : 

* For a particular account of the labours of the missionaries in 
the South Sea islands the reader is referred to Brown's History of 
Missions, 



350 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations, Sfc. 



Pop. in mill. 



N. Western This district comprehends a great number of 
Coast. independent tribes or nations, as the Monsel- 

mines, Mongearts,* Foulahs, Jaloofs,Feloops, 
Mandangos, and many others as far interiour 
as the Great Desert. Most of these are Fa- 
gans, except the Foulahs, who are Mahome- 
tans, as are also the wandering inhabitants 
of the Desert. The Foulahs are a very pow- 
erful nation, and make war on their neigh- 
bours to procure slaves for the Europeans. 4 
jMigritia, or Runs far across the continent on the north 
Negroland, side of the great chain of mountains, and fur- 
and the coast nishes, as well as Guinea, a considerable 
of Guinea, portion of victims for the slave trade. Some 
of these parts are very populous, as they 
must be to furnish, as it is said they did, 
100,000 slaves annually to the West Indies. 
The king of Benin, who possesses but a 
small part of this territory, is said to be 
able to raise an army of 100,000. Widah is 
also very populous, and Haussa lias been 
said (falsely no doubt) to be more populous 
than London. The French have agreed to 
give up the slave trade north of Cape For- 
mosa. 6 
S. Western This includes the kingdoms of Loango, Con- 
Coast go, Angola, and the extensive country of 
thejagas, and many othertribesas far south 
as the Damaras. The Portuguese sent Ca- 
tholic missions to some of these countries as 

1 A .feu is not suffered to enter this country? under pain of being 
burnt alive. 



APPENDIX. 351 



Present State of Religion, Sfc. 



but it is hoped the restoration of peace in Eu- 
rope will lead to the suppression of this system 
of cruelty and violence. 
N. Western Towards the end of the last century a company 
Coast. of benevolent persons, in this country, formed a 

settlement with a view to the civilization of Africa 
and the extermination of the slave trade : but 
the settlement was destroyed by some French 
ships and afterwards given up to our govern- 
ment. Mr. Nylander is chaplain of the colony j 
and in 1811 the Wesley an Methodists sent out 
missionaries thither. 

The Church Society for missions to Africa and 
the East have stations at Bashia and Canofee, 
(both on the Rio Pongos,) where they have erect- 
ed churches and founded schools. 



S. Western In the fifteenth century sortie Portuguese mission:. 
Coast. aries persuaded the king of Congo and his sub- 

jects to receive the Roman Catholic religion ; 
and they were followed by some others; but 
they soon revolted again to Paganism, and have 
not yet been visited by Protestant missionaries. 



35)d APPENDIX. 



Oountrie* Religious Denominations, Sfc. Pop. in mill. 

early as the fifteenth century j and some 
converts have been made to Christianity, 
but in general this part of Africa is involv- 
ed in Paganism. See Negroes. S 
Hamara, Na- The Damaras, are divided into five tribes ; 
maquas, and those who reside near the coast are very 
Corannas. poor, and many become servants to the Na- 
maquas : farther inland some become rich 
in cattle, (the only riches of those countries,) 
and upon the death of such, the horns and 
bones of the animals they have consumed are 
laid upon their graves as trophies. They 
are naturally mild, and treat their prisoners 
with humanity. The Namaquas are known 
to have ten tribes, and the Corannas fif- 
teen. [Campbell.] 1 

Colony of Calvinists, and chiefly Dutchmen 5 the set- 
the Cape. tlement having been peopled from Holland ; 
but general toleration prevails under certain 
restrictions. The population in 1810 was 
ascertained to exceed 81,000, of whom 50,000 
were Hottentots or slaves. 



tJoshesmens' The Boshesmen, or Bushmen, are a wild na- 

Country, and tion with no settled abode, who traverse the 

Caffraria. country to the extent of eight or nine degrees 

of longitude, and plunder whenever they can 

find opportunity. The term Caffraria, or 

the land of Infidels, was probably given to 

this country by the Arabs, and it is certain 

they are in the rudest state of heathenism ; 

but their country is far more populous than 

that of the Bushmeaorthe Corannas. These 

nations, with the inhabitants of the Cape 

ay form a population of 



APPENDIX. 353 



Present State of Religion, Jfrc. 



Damara, The Missionary Society of London have two 

&c. settlements in the Naraaqua country* Pella, and 

Mr. Schmelin's station on the Orange river; 

also one among the Corannas, called Orlam 

Kraal, and more recently Bethesda. 



Cape. The United Brethren have long had two flour- 

ishing settlements in this colony— one at Groene 
(formerly B avian's) Kloof — the other at Gena- 
dendal (Gnadenthall) or Grace Vale. 

The Missionary Society of London have sev- 
eral settlements in these parts, viz, at Stellen- 
bosh between the Moravian stations — at Tul- 
bach or Rodesand, where Mr. Vos resides— at 
Zurbrak near Zwellendam— at Hooge Kraal in 
George Drosdy ; and toward the east end of 
the Colony, atBethelsdorp near Algoa bay, which 
was founded by Dr. Vanderkemp : but as this 
last has been found an inconvenient situation for a 
mission, a new settlement has been formed farth- 
er east (on a spot pointed out by the governor) and 
called Theopolis, which may at present be con- 
sidered as the principal missionary Station of 
this society in South Africa. An Auxiliary 
Missionary Society exists here, and another in 

Graaf Rey net, which approaches the limit of the 

4.5 



354 



APPENDIX, 



Couwtnes. 



Religious Denominations, ($fc. 



Pop. in mill. 



Griquas, 
Bootchuanas, 
and other 
neighbouring 
nations. 
Eastern 
Coast. 



IffTEBIOUR 

Coast. 



Abyssinia. 



i;ia. 



These are numerous and powerful, the city 
Latakoo alone has about 8000 inhabitants ; 
and the capital of Makquanas is three times 
as large. They are all Pagans. [Camp- 
bell.] 

Tambookies, Marnbookies, and the inhabi- 
tants of the coast, as far as Delagoa Bay, 
are Pagans and Mahometans, mixed with 
some Portuguese christians, who of course 
are Catholics. 

As not more than half this quarter of the 
globe has been hitherto explored by Europe- 
ans, and even that very imperfectly, it is 
but reasonable to assign a considerable popu- 
lation to this great extent of unknown coun- 
try, which is wholly Pagan. 
Christians of the Abyssinian church, (which 
see.) They practise circumcision, and some 
other Jewish rites ; but were converted to 
Christianity between the fourth and sixth 
centuries, and still retain the name of chris- 
tians. 

A miserable country, and in some parts thin- 
ly peopled^ chiefly with Mahometans. Se- 
naar, however, one of its cities, is said to 
contain L00,000 persons, and Dongola about 
half as many. 



ij 



APPENDIX. 



S55 



Present State of Religion, Sfc. 



Griquas. 



Colony toward Caffraria. Here resides Mr. 
Kicherer, the minister, and the three converted 
Hottentots, who visited England in 1803, and 
1804 ; a great revival of religion has very re- 
cently taken place in all these stations ; and sev- 
eral African preachers (one a Hottentot) have 
been appointed as itinerants to assist the Euro- 
pean missionaries. 

The same society have a mission at Claarwater, 
now called Griqua Town, where King Gika and 
his people profess great respect for Dr. Vander- 
kemp, who resided some time among them. 

The king of Latakoo, on a visit from Mr. 
Campbell, expressed his willingness to receive 
missionaries, and promised to be a father to them. 
A mission is therefore immediately designed to 
Latakoo, and to Malapeetze, and Makoon's 
Kraal — stations farther to the east, where the 
inhabitants have expressed the same willingness 
to receive instruction. 



Abyssinia. In the latter part of the last century the United 
Brethren sent missionaries into Egypt, with a 
hope of their penetrating into this country, which 
proved impracticable, and the door seems shut 
against the gospel, as much as in any pagan na- 
Kon whatever. 



556 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations, dfc. 



Pop. in mill. 



Egypt. Mahometans, Jews and Copts. This coun- 

try is known to be very populous. Cairo 
alone is reckoned to contain 300,000 inhabi- 
tants. 



Madagascar, Pagans 9 with some European strangers of 
& other Isles different nations. The inhabitants, who 
on the Eas- are very numerous, bear the character of in- 
tern Coast, telligence and hospitality. 
Islands on Partly Pagans, and partly Catholics or Pro- 
the Western testants, according to the European powers 
Coast. to whom they belong. 



4* 



NORTH AMERICA. 



1 

s 



Western The inhabitants are Pagans of various In- 
Coast & dian tribes, thinly scattered over the conti- 
Indian tribes nent, and much diminished by disease and 
in the North, war ; yet it must be considered there are ma- 
ny tribes and countries yet unknown — I 
therefore take them at 

Spanish These nations being, by the power of Spain, 

Dominions, and the arts of the Jesuits, reduced under 
including Spanish dominion, of course profess the Caih- 
Meocico. olic religion, and are in a great measure civil- 

ized.* The inhabitants in 1 803 were estimat- 
ed at six and a half millions, and supposing 
they were exaggerated, as some think, I can- 
not conceive they ought now (after ten years' 
increase) to be taken at less than 7 

* The Gospels and Epistles have been translated both into the 
Mexican language 5 and into the Mextecan, the vulgar language of 
New Spain. Part of the Old Testament has also been translated 
into the Mexican language. See Appendix to Brown's History of 
Missions. 



APPENDIX, 357 



Present htate oj Religion, $c. 



Egypt. The gospel was introduced into Egypt before 

the close of the first century, but expelled again 
by Mahometanism during the seventh and eighth. 
There is, however, a considerable number of 
Copts in the country, who retain the name and 
many of the forms of Christianity. 

Madagascar Dr. Vanderkemp had long intended a mission 
to this island, and was about entering upon it at 
the time of his death. Mr. Milne has since vis- 
ited it to make inquiries, and it will no doubt be- 
come a missionary station of great importance. 



NORTH AMERICA, 



Spanish The inhabitants of those provinces are Roman 
Dominions. Catholics. The Spaniards consider the na- 
tions whom they have reduced as converts to 
Christianity. There are said to be in New Mex- 
ico, thirty villages of christian Indians, who 
live in society and industry, professing the Cath- 
olic faith. 



358 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations , &c. 



Pop. in mill. 



United Christians of all denominations, Infidels and 

States* Jews, with equal rights and complete liberty 

of conscience. The proportion may be judg- 
ed of by the following estimates of the num- 
ber of congregations of the different sects. 

In Massachusetts, Congregationalists 450, 
Baptists 125, Episcopalians 15, Friends 36, 
Presbyterians 6, Universal ists 4, Catholics, 
Unitarians and Methodists each 1. — total 639. 
In Philadelphia only, Friends 5, Presbyte- 
rians 6, Episcopalians 3, Lutherans 3, Cath- 
olics 4 ; German Calvinists, Moravians, Bap- 
tists, Universalists, Methodists, and Jews, 1 
each — total 27.* 

In New York the Presbyterians are most 
numerous, and the Baptists in Kentucky. 
The Catholics who are not numerous, reside 
chiefly in Maryland.! The population of 
the United States was taken in 1810 at 
7,238,421 ; which, comparing it with preced- 
ing estimates, gives an increase of about a 
million and a quarter in ten years ; we may, 
therefore, in 1815, (allowing for the war,) 
very safely estimate them at 
British Do- Protestants and Catholics, (the latter, strange 
minions in as it may seem,) being the established reli- 
America. gion in Canada, while the establishment in 

New Brunswick, Newfoundland, &c. is that 
of the Church of England. 

The coasts of Labrador and West Green- 
land arc too thinly peopled to admit a dis- 
tinct enumeration in this brief sketch. 

• This statement was made in 1801, and is consequently at 
present incorrect. 

t In 1801, the number of Catholics in Maryland was computed 
to amount to about 25,000. 



I 



APPENDIX. 



555 



Present State of Religion, <$fc. 



United Though there is no ecclesiastical establishment 

States. in the United States, it does not follow that there 

is no religion; indeed in most of the states every 
man is required to contribute to the support of 
public worship (where it is instituted) though he 
may choose the denomination he will support. 
Missionary Societies have been established at 
Boston, New York, and most of the capital 
towns ; and many Bible Societies have been in- 
stituted. In many parts great revivals of relig- 
ion have taken place, and it is hoped that true re- 
ligion is, in general, on the increase rather 
than otherwise. 

The United Brethren have long had missiona- 
ries among the Indians in the back settlements of 
Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Georgia, and 
among the Cherokees on the borders of Tennes- 
see ; and in 1803 the American General Assem- 
bly sent a mission to the same neighbourhood ; 
but some of these have been interrupted, by the 
events of the late war.- 



British There are several missionary stations also in 
Dominions, the back settlements of Canada, &c. supported 
by various American Societies, by some in Eng- 
land, and by the United Brethren. " The Soci- 

* The zeal for the circulation of the scriptures is not less ac- 
tive and ardent in the Western Hemisphere, than on the old con- 
tinent. In 1816, it is stated that there were 125 Bible Societies 
in the United States. A National Bible Society was established in 
New York the same year : and in 1817, the number of its auxilia- 
ries amounted to 108. The missionary zeal is also active in the 
United States ; and numerous societies have been instituted for 
evangelizing the heathens. For a particular account of the reli- 
gious and benevolent institutions in America, see Christian Disci- 
ple, Panopiist, American Baptist Magazine, ami Boston Recorder- 



360 



APPENDIX. 



Countries. 



Religious Denominations, Sfc. 



Pop in mill. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Caraccas. The inhabitants of this province, at the time 
of the invasion of Spain by theFrench,declared 
themselves independent ; and are not willing 
to resign their independence, though the an- 
cient family is restored. They are Catholics. 

New Granada. Catholics. 

Peru. Catholics. 

Chili. Catholics and Pagans. 

Paraguay or Catholics — This province has also claimed 

Buenos Ayres. independence, and maintained a civil war 
with the Caraccas. 

Brazil. Catholics. — On the conquest of Portugal by 

the French, the royal family removed and still 

resides in this settlement, which has thereby 

the honour to be the scat of royalty. 

Natives in Pagans. — The population little known, but 

the intcriour. may be moderately estimated at 

Guian v. What was called French and Dutch Guiana 

lias been conquered by the British, and the 

establishment is Protestant ; but the popula- 

4 \on is inconsiderable. The United Brethren 

have sent missionaries to Paramaribo, the 






H 



APPENDIX. S61 



Present State of Religion, Sfc. 



ety for propagating the Gospel in Foreign Parts" 
employs chaplains in many towns of Canada, 
New Brunswick, and Newfoundland, but few of 
them preach to the heathen. The Methodists 
have also a number of missionaries in the same 
parts, and some considerable congregations. 

The United Brethren have long established 
settlements in West Greenland, and on the coast 
of Labrador, which have given an evangelical 
tint (so to speak) to those inhospitable regions. 



SOUTH AMERICA. 



Guiana. The United Brethren, who penetrate all the 

most desolate parts of the earth, have several 
settlements here* viz. at Paramaribo, Bombay, 

* In the year 1812, the United Brethren had thirty three set- 
tlements among the heathen, in which they employed a hundred 
and fifty seven missionaries, under whose care were, according to 
an estimate of Mr. Latrobe, about twenty seven thousand four 
hundred converts. See Brown's History of Missions, vol. ii. p. 
107. 

46 



362 



APPENDIX. 



Countries- 



Religious Denominations, Sfc. 



Pop. in mill. 



capital of Surinam in Guiana ; the labours 
of the brethren have been instrumental in 
converting many of the negroes. 



WEST INDIES. 



i 



i 

2 



Bahama Numerous and fertile, and subject to Eng- 

Isles. land ; but few inhabited, and the population 

very inconsiderable. 

Cuba. Spanish Catholics, all the natives being ex- 

tirpated, and the island cultivated by ne- 
groes. The capital, Havannah, was reckon- 
ed to contain 30,000 inhabitants many years 
since 

Jamaica. Church of England, and Pagans, with a legal 
toleration, often impeded by the high church 
zeal of the colonial assembly, which is dis- 
couraged by the government at home. 
Kingston the capital has 50,000 inhabitants. 

Hayti, Or St. Domingo, was formerly divided be- 

tween the French and Spaniards, afterwards 
possessed by the French only $ but is now an 
independent island, exhibiting the singular 
phenomenon of an empire of blacks and peo- 
ple of colour, regularly organized under a 
black emperor.* 

Porto Rico Spanish Catholics. 

Virgin Protestants. A group of small islands forrncr- 

Xsues. Iy occupied by the Danes, but in the late war 

captured by the English. The principal arc 

• The king of Hayti is about to change the religion of his king- 
do*, which was Roman Catholic, to the Episcopal communion. 






APPENDIX. 



365 



Jamaica. 



Present State of Religion, Sfc. 



Sommelsdyk, and Hope on the Corentyn. The 
Missionary Society of London have also mis- 
sionaries at Demarara, Mahaica, and Esseque- 
bo, and the gospel has been attended with such 
success and advantages among the slaves, that 
some of the planters have encouraged it. 

WEST INDIES. 

Bahama. The Methodists have a promising interest here 
and have built a chapel which is well attended, 
both by the white and black inhabitants. * 



The Methodists have a considerable interest 
here, and the United Brethren two small settle* 



ments upon the island. 



Virgin Isles, The United Brethren have several settlements 
in these isles, which were commenced under the 



* The Methodist missionaries in the West India islands have 
exerted themselves, and have been frequently successful in their 
attempts to christianize the negro slave population of these islands- 



364 



appendix: 



Countries. 



Beligio*s Denominations 9 8{C. 



Pop. in mill. 



St. Thomas and St. John's ; but the population 
will not bear a distinct enumeration. 



Leeward These Isles being divided between the En- 
Isles. glish, Dutch, and French, were partly Pro- 

testant and partly Catholic — but of late hare 
been all under the British flag ; Guadaloupe 
and Dominica (two of the most populous) are 
to be restored to France. 
Windward Of these Barbadoes, which is an English and 
Isles. a Protestant settlement, has a population of 

more than 120,000 Under this group I also 
include Trinidad, the farthest of these islands 
toward South America. 



* 



APPENDIX. 



365 



Present State of Religion, <Sfc. 



Danish government, and are still continued. 
The Methodists also have several little societies 
at Tortola, and other of the Islands. 

Leeward The Methodists have missionary stations in 
Isles, most of these islands, particularly at St. Eusta- 

tia, Antigua, and Dominica, where they are 
rapidly on the increase. The United Brethren 
have also an established and growing interest at 
Antigua. 

Windward Barbadoes is but ill provided with religious in- 
Isles. struction. The Methodists and United Brethren 

have however each a small society upon the isl- 
and. The Missionary Society, and the Metho- 
dists, have each attempted to introduce the gos- 
pel at Trinidad, and at Tobago, but with no re- 
markable success. 



, 



APPENDIX 

TO THE FOURTH AMERICAN EDITION. 

As Mr. Williams has been very concise in his account of 
the religious denominations existing in the United States of 
America, the following brief sketch is added. 

The Congregationalists are the predominant religious de* 
nomination in each of the New England states, Rhode Island 
excepted. It has been computed that there are in Massachu- 
setts Proper 350 congregations ; in Connecticut 212 ; in 
Maine 114 ; and in Rhode IslarM 8. The churches in New 
Hampshire and Vermont are chiefly Congregational.* They 
are divided into Calvinists of the old school, a large number 
of Hopkinsians, Arminians, Unitarians of different grades* 
&c. 

The Congregationalists are not numerous in the Middle 
and Southern States ; they have, however, a number of church- 
es in New Jersey, and South Carolina. 

The Baptists form the most numerous body, Congrega- 
tionalists excepted, in New England. They have greatly in- 
creased of late, for it appears from the report of the General 
Convention of Baptists for Foreign Missions, assembled at 
Philadelphia, May 7, 1817, that the number of their church- 
es, in the United States, was 2727, of their ministers 1935 j 
that the number baptized last year amounted to 10,000, and 
the whole number of members in fellowship was 183,245. 
Their clergy are organized into Associations.! This body 
is generally composed of Calvinists or Hopkinsians. In the 
foregoing account none of the members of the Baptist con- 
gregations are included, but only those in actual communion* 

There aie also Arminian, or Free Will Baptists, Sabba~ 

* See General Repository, No. VI, and Boston Recorder, 181 6, 
t See proceedings of the General Convention at Philadelphia? 
1817, 



368 APPENDIX. 

tarians, Haldamitcs, Mennonites, Bunkers, and Separates,* 
who, though differing from the Baptist Associations above- 
named, as well as from each other in many points, yet all 
agree in denying infant baptism. These denominations are 
not included in the preceding computation. 

The Presbyterian churches, under the jurisdiction of the 
General Assembly, preponderate in the Middle States. In 
New York are Antiburgher Seceders, and other classes, who 
embrace the Presbyterian form of church government. The 
tenets of the Genevan school are generally maintained by this 
denomination j but some have adopted, at least in part, the 
Hopkinsian system. 

The General Synod of the Reformed Dutch Church is a con- 
siderably powerful body of Presbyterians, not acting in con- 
cert with the General Assembly, nor with any other circle of 
Presbyterians ; their churches are principally in New York 
and New Jersey. The General Synod of the Associate Re- 
formed Church is another connexion of Presbyterians, not 
acting in concert with either of the bodies above mentioned. 
The Presbyterians are also numerous in the Southern States ; 
and have several large congregations in South Carolina, Vir- 
ginia and Tennessee. It is computed that there are about 
eighty seven Episcopal churches in New England. Those in 
Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island 
were, in 1810, organized, and styled "The Eastern Diocess 
of the United States of America/' Their Bishop is the Right 
Rev. Alexander V. Griswold. Connecticut, where there are 
many Episcopalians, forms another Diocess, under the super- 
intendence of a bishop. There are also bishops in those of 
the Middle and Southern States, where there is a large num- 
ber of Episcopalians.! A few of the Episcopal churches are 
Calvinistic; but it is understood, that they generally embrace 
Armmian sentiments. 

The Roman Catholics have in the United States of Amer- 
ica one archbishop in Baltimore, and bishops in Boston, Phil- 
adelphia, New York, Bcardstown, Kcn'y. and New Orleans. 

* There is an Association of Separate Baptists. 
t Boston Recorder, 1816. 



APPENDIX. S€9 

Their number, including those in Louisiana and some Indian 
tribes, is said to amount to 140,000.* 

The Friends, or Quakers, are a numerous denomination 
of Christians in the United States. There are thirteen col- 
lections of this people in New England. The celebrated 
William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, by his meekness 
and wisdom, did honour to this society, whose sentiments he 
embraced and defended. They have at present fifty four con* 
gregations in that state. This denomination have been em- 
inently distinguished for their zealous and persevering efforts 
to procure the abolition of the slave trade. There are near- 
ly one thousand congregations of Friends in this country. 

The Methodists are a numerous and popular combination 
in the United States. The greatest part of this denomination 
are in the Middle and Southern States. There are, however, 
in Massachusetts twenty societies of this people, and eighteen 
in Maine. Those in this country are all, with a very small 
exception, Westleian, or Arminian Methodists. 

The German Moravians are a numerous aiul respectable 
body of Christians in Pennsylvania. In the village of Bethle- 
hem the) have two large stone buildings, in which the differ- 
ent sexes are educated in habits of industry, being employed 
in various useful manufactures. They have also flourishing 
settlements in North Carolina ; and one church in Rhode 
Island. 

The German Lutherans have several places of worship in 
Pennsylvania and New York. 

There are twelve societies of Universalists in New Eng- 
land — seven in Massachusetts, four in Maine, and one in New 
Hampshire. There is also a society of Universalists in Penn- 
sylvania. One part of this denomination are disciples of 
Chauncy and the other of Murray in their sentiments. The 
Separates are said to have six churches in Connecticut. 

There are two Sandemanian churches in New England ; 
one in Danbury, Connecticut, and one in Portsmouth, New 

* This statement was given by the Rev. Dr. Matignon, who now 
officiates at the Roman Catholic church in Boston. 



570 A**ENDIX. 

Hampshire. There is also a small number of Sandemani- 
ans in Boston. 

There is a considerable number of believers in the doc- 
trines of Swedenborg in the United States. They have 
churches or temples, as they call them, in New York, Phila- 
delphia, and Baltimore. There are also a few who embrace 
his sentiments in Massachusetts, Virginia, and Ohio. Thera 
are likewise Halcyons, who agree with the Swedenborgians, in 
maintaining the sole divinity of Jesus Christ ; though they dif- 
fer in other respects.* 

There is in the United States a considerable number of 
the followers of Mr. Elias Smith, formerly a Baptist minister 
in the Warren Association. They call themselves Chrystians, 
and profess to found their opinions solely on the sacred scrip- 
tures. In many respects they are said to harmonize with the 
Free Will Baptists. Mr. Smith, in some of his publications, 
advocates the doctrine of the annihilation of the finally impen- 
itent ; but he is said to have frequently changed his opinions. 
Those wlto wish to know more of this denomination are re- 
ferred to Smith's New Testament Dictionary, and Benedict's 
History of the Baptists. 

It appears from the most authentic intelligence which 
could be obtained, that there are, in the United States, about 
three thousand Jews. 

They have one synagogue in New York ; two in Phila- 
delphia; one in Charleston, South Carolina; and one in Vir- 
ginia. 

The numerous religious denominations in the United 
States all unite in approving and establishing Bible Societies. 
The Congrcgationalists. Baptists, Episcopalians, Presbyteri- 
ans, Moravians, and Methodists have made energetic exer- 
tions to Convert the heathens, both in our own and foreign 
countries* Sunday Schools have also been established ; and 
various societies formed to promote the present and future 
Welfare of mankind: for instance, the Peace Societies which 
have been honoured with the approbation of the Emperor 

* See New Jerusalem Magazine, 1817. 



APPENDIX. 371 

Alexander and Prince Galitzin, President of the Russian Bible 
Society. A society has also been formed for the religious and 
moral improvement of seamen, and there are many other relig- 
ious and benevolent institutions. It has been justly remarked, 
that " At no time since the days of the apostles have equal ex- 
ertions been made for the advancement of Christian knowledge, 
piety and virtue, as are at this time, and have been for a few 
years past, both in Europe and in our own country. 55 * 



The diversity of sentiment among Christians has been ex- 
hibited in the preceding pages. The candid mind will not 
consider those various opinions as an argument against di- 
vine revelation. The truth of the sacred writings is attested 
by the strongest evidence, such as the miracles recorded in the 
New Testament -, the accomplishment of the prophecies ; 
the rapid spread of the gospel, notwithstanding the most 
violent opposition ; the consistency of the several parts of the 
inspired pages with each other ; the purity and perfection of 
the precepts of Christianity ; their agreement with the moral 
attributes and perfections of the Deity ; and their benevo- 
lent tendency to promote the good of society, and advance 
our present and future happiness. Perhaps there may be as 
great a variety in the moral, as in the physical world. 

From this diversity in mind, some may have a natural 
bias towards one religious system, and some to another. 
rt The education of different persons, 55 says Dr. Watts, " has a 
miglity influence to form their opinions, and to fix their prac- 
tices; and this, it must be confessed, is not in a man's own 
choice ; but depends on the providence of the great and bless- 
ed God, the Overruler of all things. 55 

Notwithstanding the great variety of opinions which di- 
vide the christian world, the following articles are acceded 
to by all who profess to believe in divine revelation. 

1. That there is one Supreme Being of infinite perfections, 

* Christian Disciple, July, 1814, 



372 APPENDIX. 

The Manicheans may seem to be an exception to this article 
of belief, because they maintained the doctrine of two principles. 
But as they supposed the good principle would finally be victo- 
rious, and reign supreme, their evil principle may only be 
considered as a powerful demon, 

2. That this Supreme Being is the object of religious 
worship. — This appears naturally to result from the preced- 
ing article ; if we admit the being of a God, the propriety of 
worshipping him is obvious. 

Trinitarians pray to one God in three persons ; Unitarians 
address God in the person of the Father only. Roman Cath- 
olics pray to the Virgin Mary and other saints ; but they pro- 
fess to address them only as intercessors and mediators, and 
that one God is the ultimate object of their religious worship. 
The Swedenborgians address all their prayers to Jesus Christ, 
because they believe he is the Supreme and only Deity, made 
visible and accessible in a human form ; and therefore to be 
alone worshipped. 

3. That Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, (that is, the 
anointed of God,) to whom the prophecies of the old tes- 
tament refer. All who profess to believe in divine revela- 
tion agree in this article, though their ideas respecting 
Christ's person, and the ends of his mission, are widely differ- 
ent. 

4. That there will be a resurrection of the dead. The 
doctrine of a literal resurrection was indeed denied by some 
of the Gnostics, and is still by a few modern denominations ; 
yet even these admit a resurrection of some kind, though they 
explain the term metaphorically. 

5. That piety and virtue will be rewarded in a future 
-state, and impiety and vice punished. This article includes 
the idea that piety and virtue arc indispensably necessary to 
happiness. This point is universally acceded to; and there- 
tore, upon every religious system now embraced, it is our du- 
ty and interest to be virtuous and pious. 

The wretched state of the world at the time of our Sav- 
iour's appearance* which is exhibited in the Introduction to 
this work, evinces the necessity of the Christian dispensation. 



APPENDIX. 373 

The gross superstition of the Pagans, the degeneracy of the 
Jewish nation, the inconsistency of the ancient philosophers* 
and their uncertainty respecting a future state, elucidate the 
apostle's declaration, that « life and immortality are brought 
to light by the gospel."* It also appears from our Intro- 
duction, that it is highly unreasonable to consider the various 
opinions among Christians as an objection to the truth of divine 
revelation. At the time of Christ's appearance, there was a 
variety of modes in the pagan worship,! and a great diversi- 
ty of philosophical opinions. The Jews were divided in their 
opinions at the time of our Saviour, and there are still some 
remains of the ancient sects. 

The preceding work farther evinces, that the Pagan world 
still practise a variety of religious rites ; and that the Mahom- 
etans are as much divided as the Christians. Neither are 
those who reject revelation better agreed among themselves ; 
for it appears that the greatest infidels, which any age ever 
produced, were divided and unsettled in their philosophical 
opinions. Voltaire leaned to deism, and seemed for some 
time to have adopted it ; but insensibly falling into Spinoza's 
system, he knew not what to believe. D'Alembert, involved in 
uncertainty respecting the being of a God, asserts that it is 

* Cicero, famous throughout the learned world for his inqui- 
ries after truth, and investigations into the nature, moral faculties, 
and future expectations of man, gives us the sum of all the knowl- 
edge that could be acquired without revelation. In his Tusculan 
questions, lib. i. he gives us to understand, that whether the soul be 
mortal or immortal is a question which cannot be positively decid- 
ed. He devoutly wished that the immortality of the soul could be 
proved to him. So that with all his knowledge, and after all his 
researches, he was not able to determine a fact, on which the hap- 
piness of the rational creature, for time and eternity, must depend. 
See Boudinot's Age of Revelation. 

t According to Themistius, an ancient Greek orator and phi- 
losopher, there were more than three hundred sects of the Wes- 
tern philosophers, differing greatly on subjects of high importance. 
According to Varro, there were two hundred and eighty eight dif- 
ferent opinions entertained by them concerning the summum bonum, 
or chief good; and three hundred opinions concerning God; or as 
Varro himself declares, three hundred Jupiters or supreme deities. 
See President Dwight's Sermon on the Nature of the Infidel Phi- 
losophy. 



374 APPENDIX. 

more rational to be skeptical than dogmatical on the subject. 
We find Diderot, after having decided against the deist, de- 
ciding in the same peremptory manner for or against the 
skeptic or the atheist ; and Rousseau, that prodigy of incon- 
sistency, sometimes declaring his certainty of the existence of 
a. Deity, and writing the most sublime eulogies upon Christ, 
that human eloquence could devise; at other times a dis- 
tinguished champion of skepticism and infidelity. Surely a 
difference of sentiment cannot reasonably be objected against 
Christians, when we find the most celebrated Infidels thus di- 
vided, and inconsistent with themselves and each other. 

The differences among Christian denominations will ap- 
pear still greater than they really are, unless we recollect 
that a large number of the ancient sects, which are described 
in the preceding work, are now extinct. It is also to be con- 
sidered, that the opinions of several sects are nearly the same, 
though under different names, and some few modifications. 
Mr. Evans, in his " Sketch of the denominations of the Chris- 
tian world," observes, that the most distinguished denomina- 
tions, which attract our attention at the present day, may be 
included under the following threefold arrangement. 

1. Opinions respecting the person of Christ. These in- 
clude all the various grades of Trinitarians, Sabellians and 
Unitarians. 

2. Opinions respecting the means and measure of God's 
favour. Under this head Calvinists, Baxtcrians, Arminians, 
and others are comprehended. 

3. Opinions respecting church government, and the ad- 
ministration of ceremonies. These include the Roman Cath- 
olic, Greek, Episcopalian churches, and various denomina- 
tions ol Dissenters. 

To these divisions Mr. Evans adds a few denominations, 
winch cannot be classed with propriety under any of these 
three general heads. 

From the foregoing view of the various religions of the 
different countries of the world, it appears, that the Christian 
religion is of very small extent, compared with the many and 
vast countries overspread with Paganism and Mahometan- 



APPENDIX. 375 

ism. This great and painful truth is further evidenced by the 
calculations which have been made of the population of the 
world,* and the proportion of the principal religious denomi- 
nations to each other. 

In reviewing the history of the various denominations of 
Christians in past ages, humanity is deeply wounded by the 
intolerant spirit which has been so often exhibited by the dom- 
inant party. Till of late, attempting to suppress by persecu- 
tion, what were deemed erroneous opinions, was judged law- 
ful, not by Catholics only, but by the Reformers, by Episco- 
palians, and almost all the different denominations of Dissen- 
ters. But such is the happy progress of religious liberty and 
toleration, that at present, almost all sects and parties of 
Christians disclaim the right of using coercive measures iu 
the sacred concerns of religion. 

Though the ends to be answered by divine Providence, in 
permitting such a variety of opinions, cannot be fully compre- 
hended ; yet we may be assured, that they are under the di- 
rection of an all-perfect Being, who governs in infinite wis- 
dom. 

" From seeming evil still educing good, 
And better thence again, and better still 

In infinite progression." Thomson, 

* Mr. Cummin^s, in his Geography, estimates the population 
of the world at eight hundred millions ; and gives the following 
statement of the religious divisions of the inhabitants. 
Of the four principal religious denominations, 

Christians, 170,000,000. 

Jews, 9,000.000. 

Mahometans, 140,000,000* 

Pagans, - 481,000,000. 

Total, 800,000,000. 

Subdivisions among christians may be thus : 

Protestants, 50,000,000. 

Greeks and Armenians, 50,000,000. 

Catholics, - - - 90,000,000. 

Total, 170,000,000. 

Hence it appears that about one fifth part only of the human 
race have yet embraced the Christian religion in any of its forms. 



376 APPENDIX. 

Why providence has suffered the Christian religion to be hith- 
erto confined to so small a portion of the globe is also a mys- 
tery which we cannot fathom. But we are encouraged by many 
prophecies in the sacred scriptures to expect a period when 
the gospel shall be universally extended, and received with 
unanimity ; when all superstition shall be abolished ; the 
Jews and Gentiles unitedly become the subjects of Christ's 
universal empire, and the knowledge of the Lord Jill tlw earth, 
as the waters caver the sea. 









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